ABSTRACT
This chapter introduces major areas of relevance to risk: values and judgments about the acceptability of risks; responsibility and accountability; and the social-policy context of fair decisions about risks. Judging safety is essentially a subjective process reflecting the beliefs and attitudes that people hold about risks. Risk and responsibility are closely linked. People may feel responsible and be responsible for handling their own or other people’s risks. Any discussion of risk rests on assumptions about values. The concepts of loss, danger, costs, gains, etc. are all value based in that they rest on beliefs about certain factors or possibilities being good or bad, positive or negative, useful or not useful. In practical terms values are largely operational through the actions that people take and are expressed through choices. A degree of safety, or freedom from danger of physical damage or loss caused by other people or as a result of environmental pressures, is considered to be necessary.
