Some sociological aspects of accident mortality

Merton's central theme that society teaches its members to value certain goals, but does not give all its members equal opportunity to reach these goals through legitimate means has been used to explain deviant behaviour of many kinds. Data presented here suggests that it is also relevant to the study of accident mortality in Australia. It is suggested that increased sophistication of technology has reduced accidents in industry, but by making work too routine has forced more and more individuals into recreational risk taking and subsequent death in an effort to exercise such cultural values as initiative, individual ingenuity, risk taking or aggressiveness. Their view is substantiated by Australian mortality data which shows that it is persons of low socioeconomic status and male adolescents who are over represented. They also imply that much accident mortality is related to recreational activities.

• Authors:
  • Mackenzie, S K
• Publication Date: 1978-2

Language

• English

Media Info

• Pagination: 33-42
• Serial:
  • Volume: 5
  • Issue Number: 1

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Adolescents; Aggression; Crash rates; Crashes; Crimes; Fatalities; Income; Low income groups; Occupations; Offenders; Risk taking; Sociology
• ATRI Terms: Adolescent; Aggressiveness; Crash; Crash rate; Fatality; Income; Low income; Occupation; Offence; Offender; Risk taking; Sociology
• Subject Areas: Safety and Human Factors; Security and Emergencies;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01440114
• Record Type: Publication
• Source Agency: ARRB
• Files: ATRI
• Created Date: Aug 24 2012 10:50PM