Abstract
The safety of children in public spaces has long been an issue of public and policy concern. Since the 1990s, however, anxiety about children’s safety has reached unprecedented levels in wealthy countries. Concerns about the dangers presented to children in public spaces, particularly from traffic and strangers, have resulted in children’s independent movement within their communities being severely limited. This chapter examines the literature around both parent’s and children’s concerns about safety, exploring how the concept of risk society provides a framework for understanding safety concerns. It argues that a child standpoint offers a means of reshaping the debate around risk and children’s safety in communities, by first illuminating generationally based hierarchies and second bringing children’s own perspectives to the fore.
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Bessell, S. (2017). Perceptions of Risk and Safety in Public Spaces: Towards a Child Standpoint. In: Freeman, C., Tranter, P., Skelton, T. (eds) Risk, Protection, Provision and Policy. Geographies of Children and Young People, vol 12. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-287-035-3_12
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