Risk is a mode of inquiry that does not see victims and accidents as anomolies, but rather, works at a level of abstraction such that the anomaly is subsumed as part of its process.
Risk is a 'systematic way of dealing with hazards and insecurities induced and introduced by modernization itself. Risks, as opposed to older dangers, are consequences which relate to the threatening force of modernization and to its globalization of doubt. They are politically reflexive'.
Risk is a 'moral technology' (composed of statistics about life expectancy, mortality, birth rates) used to dominate time and discipline the future, making it predictable and controllable.

Risk is a new problem situation first seen in the 18th century when the potential for losses were put into play against great future advantages.
Risk is a scientific question when dealing with its estimation, but a political question when concerning the level of acceptability of a risk.

Risk is a concept which makes sense only in a context where the future can be altered or that we can make provisions for its aftermath. This is to say that it arises within a distinction between reality and possibility.