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Abstract
Both in the social sciences and in popular debates, recent commentaries on fear for children highlight the mismatch between children's and parents' fears and the risk of stranger danger, point to cultural changes to childhood and parenting in explanation. This paper suggests that a materialist approach to fear and risk may be equally helpful to understanding, and of more strategic advantage in promoting social change which benefits children, especially those who have been victims. It is argued that if research is child-centred, grounded in particular places, and explicit about the social stratification of risk, then experience of victimization itself can explain a large part of children's fears. In support, the paper draws on quantitative and qualitative research with 1,069 children aged 10–16 in a deprived area of northeast England. The geographies of child victimization and children's fears are compared, showing that many fears about public space are spatially congruent with experiences of risk. These geographies of risk and fear are gendered and racialized and, in this geographical context, paedophiles and asylum seekers have replaced the ‘stranger’ in children's accounts of danger. Implications for current public and policy debates are discussed.
Dans les sciences sociales et les débats populaires, les études récentes sur la peur pour les enfants mettent en lumière l'inadéquation entre les craintes ressenties par les enfants et les parents et les risques liés aux personnes inconnues. L'explication vient des changements culturels entourant l'enfance et le métier de parent. Il ressort de cet article qu'une perspective matérialiste de la peur et du risque pourrait être utile pour comprendre et promouvoir d'un point de vue stratégique un changement social qui profite aux enfants, notamment les victimes. Cette discussion montre que quand la recherche est centrée sur l'enfant, constituée autour de lieux particuliers, et très claire à propos de la stratification sociale du risque, elle peut alors tenir compte de l'expérience de victime pour expliquer une grande part des craintes ressenties par les enfants. L'article s'appuie sur une enquête quantitative et qualitative menée auprès de 1069 enfants âgés entre 10 et 16 ans qui habitent dans un milieu défavorisé du nord-est de l'Angleterre. Nous comparons la géographie de la victimisation des enfants et celle des craintes ressenties par les enfants, et montrons ainsi que de nombreuses craintes que suscite l'espace public s'inscrivent dans la logique spatiale des expériences relatives au risque. Ces géographies du risque et de la peur de l'espace public sont liées au sexe et à la race et, dans ce contexte géographique, les pédophiles et les réfugiés ont remplacé la ‘personne inconnue’ dans la description que font les enfants du danger. La discussion se poursuit sur les répercussions pour les débats publics et politiques actuels.
Tanto en las ciencias sociales como en debates populares, comentarios recientes sobre miedo por los niños subrayan la discrepancia entre los miedos de niños y de padres y el riesgo que representan las personas desconocidas, y la explicación señala cambios culturales en lo que se refiere a la infancia y la crianza de los hijos. Este papel sugiere que un enfoque materialista hacia el miedo y el riesgo puede ayudar nuestro entendimiento y ser favorable estratégicamente en el fomento de cambios sociales que benefician a los niños, especialmente niños victimados. Se sugiere que, si la investigación se centra en los niños, en lugares específicos y expresa de modo explícito la estratificación social de riesgo, entonces la experiencia de victimación en sí puede explicar una gran parte de los miedos de niños. Para respaldar este argumento, el papel hace uso de una investigación cuantativa y cualitativa elaborada con 1069 niños de entre 10 y 16 años de edad en una zona desventajada del noreste de Inglaterra. Se comparan las geografías de la victimación de niños con los miedos de los niños e éstos indican que muchos miedos asociados con espacios públicos son espacialmente congruentes con experiencias de riesgo. Estas geografías de riesgo y miedo están racializados y se les asignan género y, en este contexto geográfico, los pedófilos y solicitantes de asilo han reemplazado a la ‘persona desconocida’ en las ideas que los niños tienen de peligro. Hablo de las implicaciones que esto conlleva par los debates públicos y políticos.
Acknowledgements
I am very grateful to Sally Gill for her work on this project, to Victim Support for funding it, to the young people involved for their contributions, and to three anonymous reviewers for their helpful comments.
Notes
1 While more children in the younger age bracket were included in the sample, it was otherwise representative of the social mix of the town.
2 The discussion groups were tape recorded, transcribed and subject to qualitative analysis. Quotes are presented here verbatim with […] indicating material left out.
3 For the youngest children, a researcher stood at the front of the class and read out the questions to overcome any difficulties with literacy. The 1,069 questionnaires which were completed were input and analysed using SPSS. A large amount of qualitative data were also collected and analysed, from answers to open-ended questions and additional comments that children wrote down. These data were analysed alongside the discussion group data, and some are presented in this paper as they were written. Parental consent was arranged by schools, and children were assured that that their participation was voluntary and that they did not have to answer any questions they didn't want to. Schools were aware of the sensitive nature of the questions and provision was in place to support children who found them upsetting.
4 There are numerous other perspectives on the constitution of fear of crime which are valid but which have been excluded from this analysis—for example, fear as part of emotional geographies (Panelli, Little and Kraack 2004), fear in relation to local economic history (Loader, Girling and Sparks Citation1998), fear as a tool of governance (Garland Citation1996), and fear as a psychological state reflecting individual lifecourses (Hollway and Jefferson Citation1997).