Dangerous games in secondary schools, a spatial analysis

The purpose of this article is to question the planning of school spaces in a quest to prevent risky behaviour such as dangerous games. Of the 10,080 secondary school (junior high school) students interviewed, we analyzed the responses of the 2850 students who reported playing a dangerous game at least once. The results reveal first of all that the playground, despite the presence of adults, is an ideal setting for the practice of dangerous game. Secondly, the interstitial spaces are characterized by an over-representation of games with aggressive tone. This study confirms that the type of architecture valued in French colleges combined with succinct arrangements favour certain types of play.