O’Connor, J.
The plaintiff’s amended complaint alleges that he was injured due to the negligence of the defendants “in the care, operation and maintenance” of land owned and controlled by them. The defendants filed a motion for summary judgment that was allowed on the basis of depositions of the plaintiff and of the defendant George L. Merrill. The uncontroverted material facts are that the plaintiff sustained bodily injury on the defendants’ land, where the [245]*245plaintiff was an adult trespasser who was not helplessly trapped. The parties stipulated that the defendants’ conduct was not wilful, wanton and reckless. The question before us is whether we should abolish our common law rule that a landowner is not liable to an adult trespasser for injuries resulting from the landowner’s negligence. We conclude that the rule should be retained, and we affirm the judgment of the Superior Court.
The following facts are extracted from the record, which includes depositions of the plaintiff and of the defendant George L. Merrill. On June 22, 1974, the plaintiff, then twenty-three years old, went with four friends to a section of Westford known as Merrill’s Quarry, an abandoned quarry excavation filled with water. The plaintiff had never visited the area before. He saw no barrier or warning signs on that day. He knew that neither he nor his friends owned the land. Other people were swimming in the quarry. The plaintiff jumped into the water from a height of about twenty feet, hitting a ledge of rock below the water surface. As a result of the impact, he sustained a fracture in the thoracic spine that has left him with a limited ability to walk and impaired sexual, pulmonary, and bladder functions.
The quarry site had belonged to the defendants’ family for about 100 years and had been leased for use as a quarry until 1968. After quarrying ceased, the excavation filled with rain water and was nearly full at the time of the plaintiff’s accident. There were repeated efforts to prevent trespassers from entering the quarry site. The defendant George Merrill and his brother blocked the dirt access road with a steel cable anchored to two oak trees and a granite pillar. When the cable and locks were taken down by trespassers, George Merrill or his brother repaired or replaced them. The defendants frequently had trespassers arrested during the summers from 1969 to 1974.
The traditional rule in this Commonwealth is that a trespasser is entitled to no greater duty of care from one with a right of control over land (typically the landowner) than that he refrain from wilful, wanton or reckless disregard for [246]*246the trespasser’s safety. Chronopoulos v. Gil Wyner Co., 334 Mass. 593, 596 (1956). Sweeny v. Old Colony & Newport R.R., 10 Allen 368, 372 (1865).2 In Mounsey v. Ellard, 363 Mass. 693 (1973), we discarded the traditional premises liability distinction between invitees and licensees. Prior to Mounsey, a plaintiff licensee had to show that a landowner’s conduct amounted to wilful and wanton disregard of the likelihood of harm. In contrast, invitees needed to show only a breach of a duty of due care. In Mounsey, we held that the standard of due care applied to all lawful entrants. Id. at 703, 706-707. We expressly excluded trespassers from this rule. Id. at 707 n.7.
In Mounsey, the plaintiff was a police officer acting in his official capacity at the time he was injured on the defendant’s premises. He was on the premises to serve a criminal summons for a parking violation on one of the defendants. We noted, id. at 701-702, that a public employee who enters upon private property to perform official duties did not fit into any of the traditional categories of invitee, licensee or trespasser. We referred to the “confusing and often inconsistent results” in cases involving the distinction between invitees and social guests, who were considered mere licensees. Id. at 705-706.
The difficulty in distinguishing between invitees and licensees was one reason, but not the principal one, for our abandonment of those categories as determinants of premises liability. The dominant consideration was that such a distinction “no longer comport[s] with modern accepted values and common experience.” Id. at 703.3
[247]*247In Mounsey, supra at 707 n.7, we expressed our sense “that there is significant difference in the legal status of one who trespasses on another’s land as opposed to one who is on the land under some color of right — such as licensee or invitee.” We continue to perceive that significant difference and we recognize now, as we did then, that any legal duty owed by a landowner to an entrant upon his land finds its source in existing social values and customs. We can say with confidence that landowners of ordinary prudence customarily exercise care for the safety of trespassers who are known to be in a position of peril,4 certain foreseeable child trespassers,5 and all lawful visitors.6 However, we are not convinced that landowners of ordinary prudence customarily exercise care for the safety of adult trespassers generally.
General Laws c. 231, § 85Q, provides that a duty of reasonable care is owed to certain foreseeable child trespassers. This demonstrates the Legislature’s recognition of a com[248]*248munity consensus that landowners should exercise care for the safety of foreseeable child trespassers in certain circumstances. When that statute was enacted the Legislature could have abolished the common law trespasser distinction, but it did not do so. This strongly suggests that there is no community consensus that landowners ought to exercise care for the safety of adult trespassers.
The lack of such a consensus makes abolition of the common law rule unworkable. In a negligence case involving lawful visitors, foreseeable child trespassers, and known helplessly trapped trespassers, the trial judge typically instructs the jury that they are to determine whether the defendant exercised that degree of care for the safety of the plaintiff that the ordinarily prudent landowner customarily exercises in the same or similar circumstances. The jury focuses on how the ordinarily prudent landowner would have discharged his responsibility to care for the plaintiff s safety and compares the defendant’s conduct. No question arises as to whether such responsibility exists because there is community agreement both that it does exist and that the responsibility is recognized by ordinarily prudent landowners. The current rule assumes a socially accepted moral principle and is therefore workable.
If we were to abolish the trespasser rule, and the trial judge were to instruct the jury that they are to determine whether the defendant exercised that degree of care for the safety of the plaintiff trespasser that the ordinarily prudent landowner customarily exercises in the same or similar circumstances, the jury inquiry would not be limited to comparing the defendant’s conduct to how the ordinarily prudent landowner would have discharged his recognized responsibility to care for the plaintiff. Because there is no community consensus, the jury would first consider whether the ordinarily prudent landowner recognizes any responsibility at all to care for the safety of an adult trespasser.
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O’Connor, J.
The plaintiff’s amended complaint alleges that he was injured due to the negligence of the defendants “in the care, operation and maintenance” of land owned and controlled by them. The defendants filed a motion for summary judgment that was allowed on the basis of depositions of the plaintiff and of the defendant George L. Merrill. The uncontroverted material facts are that the plaintiff sustained bodily injury on the defendants’ land, where the [245]*245plaintiff was an adult trespasser who was not helplessly trapped. The parties stipulated that the defendants’ conduct was not wilful, wanton and reckless. The question before us is whether we should abolish our common law rule that a landowner is not liable to an adult trespasser for injuries resulting from the landowner’s negligence. We conclude that the rule should be retained, and we affirm the judgment of the Superior Court.
The following facts are extracted from the record, which includes depositions of the plaintiff and of the defendant George L. Merrill. On June 22, 1974, the plaintiff, then twenty-three years old, went with four friends to a section of Westford known as Merrill’s Quarry, an abandoned quarry excavation filled with water. The plaintiff had never visited the area before. He saw no barrier or warning signs on that day. He knew that neither he nor his friends owned the land. Other people were swimming in the quarry. The plaintiff jumped into the water from a height of about twenty feet, hitting a ledge of rock below the water surface. As a result of the impact, he sustained a fracture in the thoracic spine that has left him with a limited ability to walk and impaired sexual, pulmonary, and bladder functions.
The quarry site had belonged to the defendants’ family for about 100 years and had been leased for use as a quarry until 1968. After quarrying ceased, the excavation filled with rain water and was nearly full at the time of the plaintiff’s accident. There were repeated efforts to prevent trespassers from entering the quarry site. The defendant George Merrill and his brother blocked the dirt access road with a steel cable anchored to two oak trees and a granite pillar. When the cable and locks were taken down by trespassers, George Merrill or his brother repaired or replaced them. The defendants frequently had trespassers arrested during the summers from 1969 to 1974.
The traditional rule in this Commonwealth is that a trespasser is entitled to no greater duty of care from one with a right of control over land (typically the landowner) than that he refrain from wilful, wanton or reckless disregard for [246]*246the trespasser’s safety. Chronopoulos v. Gil Wyner Co., 334 Mass. 593, 596 (1956). Sweeny v. Old Colony & Newport R.R., 10 Allen 368, 372 (1865).2 In Mounsey v. Ellard, 363 Mass. 693 (1973), we discarded the traditional premises liability distinction between invitees and licensees. Prior to Mounsey, a plaintiff licensee had to show that a landowner’s conduct amounted to wilful and wanton disregard of the likelihood of harm. In contrast, invitees needed to show only a breach of a duty of due care. In Mounsey, we held that the standard of due care applied to all lawful entrants. Id. at 703, 706-707. We expressly excluded trespassers from this rule. Id. at 707 n.7.
In Mounsey, the plaintiff was a police officer acting in his official capacity at the time he was injured on the defendant’s premises. He was on the premises to serve a criminal summons for a parking violation on one of the defendants. We noted, id. at 701-702, that a public employee who enters upon private property to perform official duties did not fit into any of the traditional categories of invitee, licensee or trespasser. We referred to the “confusing and often inconsistent results” in cases involving the distinction between invitees and social guests, who were considered mere licensees. Id. at 705-706.
The difficulty in distinguishing between invitees and licensees was one reason, but not the principal one, for our abandonment of those categories as determinants of premises liability. The dominant consideration was that such a distinction “no longer comport[s] with modern accepted values and common experience.” Id. at 703.3
[247]*247In Mounsey, supra at 707 n.7, we expressed our sense “that there is significant difference in the legal status of one who trespasses on another’s land as opposed to one who is on the land under some color of right — such as licensee or invitee.” We continue to perceive that significant difference and we recognize now, as we did then, that any legal duty owed by a landowner to an entrant upon his land finds its source in existing social values and customs. We can say with confidence that landowners of ordinary prudence customarily exercise care for the safety of trespassers who are known to be in a position of peril,4 certain foreseeable child trespassers,5 and all lawful visitors.6 However, we are not convinced that landowners of ordinary prudence customarily exercise care for the safety of adult trespassers generally.
General Laws c. 231, § 85Q, provides that a duty of reasonable care is owed to certain foreseeable child trespassers. This demonstrates the Legislature’s recognition of a com[248]*248munity consensus that landowners should exercise care for the safety of foreseeable child trespassers in certain circumstances. When that statute was enacted the Legislature could have abolished the common law trespasser distinction, but it did not do so. This strongly suggests that there is no community consensus that landowners ought to exercise care for the safety of adult trespassers.
The lack of such a consensus makes abolition of the common law rule unworkable. In a negligence case involving lawful visitors, foreseeable child trespassers, and known helplessly trapped trespassers, the trial judge typically instructs the jury that they are to determine whether the defendant exercised that degree of care for the safety of the plaintiff that the ordinarily prudent landowner customarily exercises in the same or similar circumstances. The jury focuses on how the ordinarily prudent landowner would have discharged his responsibility to care for the plaintiff s safety and compares the defendant’s conduct. No question arises as to whether such responsibility exists because there is community agreement both that it does exist and that the responsibility is recognized by ordinarily prudent landowners. The current rule assumes a socially accepted moral principle and is therefore workable.
If we were to abolish the trespasser rule, and the trial judge were to instruct the jury that they are to determine whether the defendant exercised that degree of care for the safety of the plaintiff trespasser that the ordinarily prudent landowner customarily exercises in the same or similar circumstances, the jury inquiry would not be limited to comparing the defendant’s conduct to how the ordinarily prudent landowner would have discharged his recognized responsibility to care for the plaintiff. Because there is no community consensus, the jury would first consider whether the ordinarily prudent landowner recognizes any responsibility at all to care for the safety of an adult trespasser. The jury’s resolution of the question would be likely to turn on such social policy concerns as the privileges that ought to attach to land ownership, or on the jury’s view as to the proper [249]*249allocation of the costs of serious injuries. A jury would thus determine, on a case by case basis, the existence or nonexistence of a legal duty of care. Such a determination would be unpredictable and would be made long after the event that prompted the inquiry. If the present case were to be tried and the facts recited above were in evidence, the jury would be warranted in finding that the plaintiffs intrusion was foreseeable by the defendants. The jury would then be required to determine whether present community values call for the exercise of care for the safety of foreseeable trespassers who are neither children nor known to be helplessly trapped. Such determinations are appropriately made by the court or the Legislature, as has heretofore been the practice, and not by juries.
Courts in some jurisdictions have abolished the rule that a landowner is not liable to an adult trespasser for injuries resulting from the landowner’s negligence. Most of the cases in which the abolition of the rule has been announced did not involve trespassers. See Rowland v. Christian, 69 Cal. 2d 108 (1968); Mile High Fence Co. v. Radovich, 175 Colo. 537 (1971); Pickard v. City of Honolulu, 51 Haw. 134 (1969); Smith v. Arbaugh’s Restaurant, Inc., 469 F.2d 97 (D.C. Cir. 1972), cert. denied, 412 U.S. 939 (1973); Webb v. City of Sitka, 561 P.2d 731 (Alas. 1977); Scheibel v. Hillis, 531 S.W.2d 285 (Mo. 1976); Cunningham v. Hayes, 463 S.W.2d 555 (Mo. App. 1971).7 Other courts, in cases [250]*250involving trespassers, have abolished the common law classification, but most of them did not involve adult trespassers. See Ouellette v. Blanchard, 116 N.H. 552 (1976) (ten year old plaintiff); Mariorenzi v. Joseph DiPonte, Inc., 114 R.I. 294 (1975) (five year old decedent); Scurti v. City of New York, 40 N.Y.2d 433 (1976) (fourteen year old decedent); Cates v. Beauregard Elec. Coop., Inc., 328 So.2d 367 (La.), cert. denied, 429 U.S. 833 (1976) (sixteen year old plaintiff).
The suggested change in the law would ultimately result in the submission to juries of cases that ought to be decided upon directed verdicts. Compare Watson v. Niagara Mohawk Power Corp., 66 App. Div. 2d 996 (N.Y. 1978); Leone v. Utica, 49 N.Y.2d 811 (1980), aff'g 66 App. Div. 2d 463 (1979). It might be entirely foreseeable that a thief or vandal would enter someone’s premises to commit a crime; yet surely it could not be declared that a duty of reasonable care was owed to that person. Such cases should not be for the jury to decide. The New Hampshire Supreme Court in Ouellette v. Blanchard, supra, recognized this problem and, in essence, created new standards for directing verdicts . After concluding that the common law rule should be abolished, the court stated: “When the intrusion is not foreseeable or is against the will of the landowner many intruders will be denied recovery as a matter of law; In other words, a landowner cannot be expected to maintain his premises in a safe condition for a wandering tramp or a person who enters against the known wishes of the landowner.” 116 N.H. at 557. See id. at 561 (Grimes, J., dissenting). This approach merely replaces existing rules of law with a new and relatively undefined set of classifications for determining which cases are to be decided by directed verdicts. This approach creates more confusion than it eliminates.
Other areas of our law are consistent with the result we reach here. The common law recognizes that a person may [251]*251be privileged to act in ways that would be otherwise tortious toward one who violates the legal rights of the actor or a third party. The existence of such a privilege, limited as it is, does not brand the victim an “outlaw.” See generally Antoniewicz v. Reszczynski, 70 Wis. 2d 836, 843 (1975). Rather, the privilege is commensurate with the nature of the violation being committed. It is greatest when bodily harm is threatened, see Restatement (Second) of Torts § 65 (1965), and it diminishes when the violation by the other is to a property right, cf. Commonwealth v. Klein, 372 Mass. 823 (1977). One in possession of a chattel may use reasonable force to prevent its conversion, see Restatement (Second) of Torts §§ 77, 87 (1965), and a possessor of land is privileged to use reasonable force to prevent a trespass, Restatement (Second) of Torts § 77 (1965). The rule that allows a possessor to forbear from acting with care toward a trespasser is a similar privilege, and we think it also is commensurate with the nature of the violation being committed.
During the last fifteen years this court has on a number of occasions made significant changes in the law of torts.8 Yet in each of those cases the change has been based on sound public policy. The reasons advanced in favor of abolishing [252]*252the common law trespasser classification are unconvincing. We are told that the rule is an old one with many exceptions, and therefore is obsolete. But the fact that a rule of law is old does not necessarily mean that it no longer serves a valid purpose. Indeed, its age may indicate the strength and universality of the community values it represents. Nor does the existence of exceptions to a rule of law, without more, warrant its rejection. There are few rules of law that do not admit of some exceptions, for the simple reason that it is often impossible to make a statement that will be correct in every instance.9 If we were to abolish the trespasser classification, exceptions to the law would be necessary in cases involving persons entering the land with criminal intent or with knowledge that they enter against the known wishes of the landowner. See Ouellette v. Blanchard, supra.
It is commonly asserted that the abolition of the traditional rule will eliminate the harsh results that it has sometimes brought about. See, e.g., Comment, Duty of Owners and Occupiers of Land to Persons Entering the Premises: Should Pennsylvania Abandon the Common Law Approach? 17 Duq. L.R. 153 (1978-1979); Case Comment, 8 Suffolk U.L. Rev. 795, 807, 811 n.75 (1974). However, a review of the cases readily demonstrates that any such harshness has already been, or can easily be, ameliorated by the simple adoption of the recognized exceptions to the common law rule. Thus, “where a trespasser is in a position of peril . . . and his presence becomes known, the owner then has a duty to use reasonable care ... in the circumstances.” Pridgen v. Boston Hous. Auth., 364 Mass. 696, 707 (1974). An occupier of land will also be held to a duty of ordinary care [253]*253to certain foreseeable child trespassers, in conformity with the statutory negligence standard imposed by G. L. c. 231, § 85Q (inserted by St. 1977, c. 259). Soule v. Massachusetts Elec. Co., 378 Mass. 177 (1979).
It is apparent then, that upon analysis the reasons commonly stated in favor of abolishing the preclusive effect of the trespasser’s status are of little persuasive value. Perhaps the temptation to extend liability in favor of trespassers is born of a desire to permit a reallocation of the costs of serious inj uries. This has long been a known tendency of juries, and modern trends in tort law have had this effect. A source of this tendency in the law is the thought that the costs of serious injuries should, through the medium of insurance, be borne by society at large. It has been said that the tendency of modern tort law has been in the direction of a system of liability without fault. See F. Harper & F. James, Torts § 27.1, at 1432 (1956). Perhaps a consequence of these developments has been the emergence in recent years of an attitude shared by some commentators: if someone is injured, it must be someone else’s fault — or at least someone else should pay for it. But concerns such as these more properly should be the subject of some sort of universal accident insurance system. They cannot, for reasons too numerous to mention, be addressed by the courts on a piecemeal basis in the context of negligence law. The ready availability of insurance and a sympathetic plaintiff should not allow us to undermine the fundamentals of negligence law. Thus we reject the suggestion of some authorities10 that the insurability of the landowner’s risk of liability warrants abolishing the trespasser classification.
The law of negligence is an imperfect method for compensating the victims of accidents. In the absence of a [254]*254better alternative, however, we think the existing system of law will work better if its traditional principles are reaffirmed. The rule of law immunizing landowners from potential liability to adult trespassers still serves an important function in defining the duty owed and separating the roles of judge and jury. Abolishing the rule, on the other hand, is both unnecessary and undesirable, especially in light of the humane exceptions to the rule which have been established.
Judgment affirmed.