[Evaluation of the application of laws or regulations]

In the field of safety, accidents and injuries, laws and regulations can either ensure a passive protection of persons, or need their active participation. In the latter situation, beside the use of health indicators (rates of fatalities, accidents, injuries), the evaluation will also focus on changes of behaviour. In the case of mandatory restraint devices for young children, the evaluation of the laws indicates their effectiveness, but also: 1) methodological issues in interpretation of the results (reliability of the sources of information, choice of relevant denominators for the calculation of rates ...); 2) families low compliance, due to problems of acceptability of the laws and regulations, and to personal factors (demographic, socio-economic, cultural, and mainly psychological).