Anti-social Behaviour

• 1990s- ASB is a term used in studies on poverty and social justice 
• 1993 'Back to basics' - conservative government campaign 
• 1997 New Labour- focus on law and order, 'respect' 

• Crime and disorder Act 1998

s.1 specifies a local authority or police can apply for an ASBO if a person has:

acted in an anti-social manner that caused or will likely yo cause harassment, alarm or distress to one or more persons not of the same household as himself 

• Anti-social behaviour Act 2003

Strengthened ASBO provisions, measures to address specific behaviour e.g. drug use, noise, littering and trespassing 

ASB is:

• Conduct that has caused or likely to cause harassment, alarm or distress to any person 
• Conduct capable of causing nuisance or annoyance to a person in relation to that person's occupation of residential premises 
• Conduct capable of causing housing-related nuisance or annoyance to any person 

• ASB and neighbourhood decline: vicious circle 

Home office 2000 

• If visible signs of minor disorder are not challenged, more serious crime could follow 

Wilson and Helling 1982 

• 1990's studies linked to ASB to social inequality, deprivation and an absence of social justice 
• 2000's the state focuses on enforcement and crime control rather than social justice and underlying causes of crime 

Squires and Stephan 2005 

C20th : incremental criminalisation of working class youth

Hopkins -Burke 2008 

• Young people were seen as responsible for low-level disorder and their 'incivilities' and unsupervised gathering in public places caused anxiety and unease 

Girling et al 2000 

• Main bulk of aggravation comes from young people, yobbos, school children 
• They seem to feel that anything goes and people just do not count, these youngsters 
• They're either drunk, or on drugs, or they're fighting 

Girling et al 2000 

• Crime and disorder act 1998 
• Criminal Justice and Police Act 2001 
• Police Reform Act 2002 
• Anti-social behaviour act 2003 
• Anti- social, behaviour, crime and policing act 2014

• Anti- social behaviour order (ASBO)
• Age 10+ 
• Civil order 
• Breach is a criminal offence 
• Criminal Anti-Social behaviour order (CRASBO) civil order 
• made on conviction in criminal proceedings 

Informal approaches 

• Verbal and written warnings 
• Community resolution e.g. mediation, written apology, compensation 
• Acceptable Behaviour Contract (ABC)
• Parenting contract 
• Counselling

Formal approaches (court)

• Civil injunction 
• Criminal behaviour order 

Police, local authorities, housing associations can variously employ:

• Dispersal powers 
• Community protection notice 
• Public spaces protection order 
• Closure powers 
• Parenting order

• Do measures affect people's right to due process? 
• Drift to more extensive social control - net widening : Cohen 1985 
• The policing of ASB marks an increasingly disciplinary and exclusive society: Squire and Stephens 2005