Children at Risk

The concept of risk positions children as passive potential victims of direct harm and environmental factors. The concept assumes shared definitions of the concept of childhood within and across [Page 422]nation boundaries. This entry describes how children are at risk from poverty, hunger, and sexual and physical assault by powerful others in times of war and in child services. The risk is not internal to the child as in, for example, the risk of injury through brittle bone disease. In keeping with the aims of this volume, the risk is seen as originating in hostile and impoverished social contexts.

Childhood is defined differently across the world. Those 10 years of age may have familial responsibilities in some African and Asian countries; females 12 years of age ...