ABSTRACT
In previous chapters — through a brief consideration of a series of case studies within the rubric of safety crimes, and then through presenting a range of data regarding the scale and distribution of occupational deaths and injuries — we have indicated that in objective, if sheer physical, terms, deaths and injuries at work represent a significant social problem. Of course, as we have emphasised, this does not necessarily mean that this social problem is recognised popularly nor politically: that is, such injuries and deaths may remain relatively invisible, or if visible, be perceived as neither a significant social nor indeed a crime problem; and each of these is in fact the case. The anomaly apparent here — a significant toll of death and injury which seems to barely register as a social or crime problem — needs further consideration. In short, how is it that safety crimes are obscured from view?
