Children are at the heart of popular and public debates in North America and Europe about the culture of public space. On the one hand there is increased anxiety about children's vulnerability to stranger danger, on the other there is a rising tide of fear about out of control and dangerous youth. This book addresses both these debates about children's role in public space, setting them within an academic framework and drawing on a range of interdisciplinary work on childhood, young people and parenting. It is therefore relevant to practitioners and policy makers concerned with the nature and future of public space, and to academics researching or teaching about childhood, family or public space in the disciplines of sociology, social policy and geography.