Anti-social behaviour
Tackling anti-social behaviour: What really works?
Findings from the British Crime Survey (BCS) 2000 revealed that nine per cent of adults had experienced disorderly and anti-social behaviour in the last year. The most commonly cited anti-social behaviour was young people being rude or abusive (cited by a fifth of respondents).
Title: Tackling anti-social behaviour: What really works
Author: Rachel Armitage
Series: Community Safety Practice Briefing
Number of pages: 12
Date published: September 2002
Young people and students were particularly likely to state that they had experienced anti-social behaviour.
Between April 1999 and March 2002, a total of 583 Anti-Social Behaviour Orders (ASBOs) were granted.
Of the 466 ASBOs granted between April 1999 and September 2001, 84 per cent were on men, and 74 per cent were on those aged 21 years and under.
A Home Office Review of ASBOs found that 36 per cent of the orders were breached within nine months of being granted (some up to five times).
The average ASBO costs more than £5,000 and takes over three months to obtain.
In 2000, over half of those sentenced in court for a breach of an ASBO received a custodial sentence.
Between April 1999 and September 2001, 141 parliamentary questions were asked about anti-social behaviour.
55 per cent of local authorities stated that they currently had an anti-social behaviour policy, a further 16 per cent stated that they were currently developing one. Metropolitan authorities were most likely to have a policy or be in the process of developing one (84 per cent) with county councils least likely.
29 per cent of local authorities had a dedicated officer dealing with anti-social behaviour. 26 per cent had a team dealing with this work. A third of local authorities had no officer or team.
Tackling anti-social behaviour is high on the agenda of both national government and local agencies. Local partnerships, together with local communities, have been encouraged to identify local problems, develop strategies and action plans, and evaluate their interventions to inform future practice.
This briefing highlights examples of work carried out by local authorities that are considered to have been successful in tackling anti-social behaviour. Three types of intervention are considered:
enforcement
prevention
education
Evaluations of what works in reducing anti-social behaviour are scarce. Where they do exist, they are carried out locally with very little standardisation in methodology. For this reason, it is difficult to make informed judgements about what works and what does not work to reduce anti-social behaviour. Despite this, however, it is clear that a focus upon one element of intervention at the expense of others can only result in a quick fix at the expense of any long-term solutions. Partners need to address anti-social behaviour using a holistic approach that includes enforcement, prevention and education.
The briefing covers the following topics:
Defining anti-social behaviour
Measuring anti-social behaviour
Why does anti-social behaviour matter?
Legal measures before Anti-Social Behaviour Orders (ASBOs)
Tackling anti-social behaviour through enforcement: Anti-Social Behaviour Orders (ASBOs)
Other interventions that use enforcement to address anti-social behaviour
Tackling anti-social behaviour through prevention
Tackling anti-social behaviour through education
Conclusions
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Last update: Tuesday, September 05, 2006