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This paper examines the efficacy of some established theories of decision-making in relation to commonplace interactions that involve children. In particular, it is concerned with children's perceptions of danger in traffic. The authors analyze concepts such as ‘risk,’ ‘danger,’ and ‘hazard’ and discriminate between ‘danger perception’ and ‘risk-taking.’ Relationships among probability, blame and intention also are discussed. Various studies are reviewed, particularly those that bear on children's perceptions of danger, and some new empirical data on evaluations of children and adults as pedestrians and witnesses are reported. It is argued that when children are involved in accidents with adults, they are socially and legally disadvantaged because differences between adults and children are taken to reflect fault on the part of the child. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]