Dealing with disorder and anti-social behaviour

The Government's Crime Reduction Strategy

Dealing with disorder and anti-social behaviour

Action points

New powers for the police and courts to deal with anti-social behaviour;

Joined up initiatives across government to tackle the causes of crime and create safe, stable communities, including £800 million to support neighbourhood regeneration through the New Deal for Communities Programme;

A target of reducing levels of truancy and school exclusion by one third by the year 2002, supported by nearly £500 million in grants;

A comprehensive programme to tackle race crime;

Seventy youth inclusion schemes, each providing activities for 40 to 50 of the most disaffected 13 to 16 year olds on our most disadvantaged estates.

Key facts

Calls to the police relating to disorder increased in England and Wales by 19% between 1995/96 and 1997/98. Over the same period, the total number of incidents reported to the police actually fell by 6%.

In areas of high physical disorder, people are more likely to be victims of crime: 22% in areas of high physical disorder will be victims of vehicle related theft; in areas of low disorder this is only 15% of households.

Complaints about neighbours have increased by 56% in four years and prosecutions have risen by 98%. A survey of 14 providers of social housing found that, on average, each had 800 cases of nuisance to deal with in 1996/97.

2. Physical and social disorder are distressing in their own right but they are also important because they can lead to more serious crime. Where there is more physical disorder in the form of litter and vandalism, crime risks are higher. People who live in inner city areas are almost twice as likely to say that litter or vandalism are a very or fairly serious problem as elsewhere, and more than twice as likely to complain about noisy neighbours.

3. Problems like these require new legal tools for the police and local councils, such as anti-social behaviour orders (ASBOs), but they also need broader strategies that address all of the problems which may be holding a neighbourhood back – from high levels of difficult to let housing, to school truancy, to lack of youth facilities. That means joined up action across government departments and across agencies at local level to create the conditions for stable, healthy environments where criminal activity does not thrive.

Anti Social Behaviour Orders

4. The anti-social behaviour order came into force on 1 April 1999. Local authorities and the police can seek an Order from the courts to protect the community from the actions of those who cause harassment, alarm or distress through anti-social behaviour. The Order will prevent the defendant from doing anything specified in it. A breach of the Order attracts stiff penalties of up to five years’ imprisonment. The measure is intended to combat serious and persistent anti-social behaviour, which makes life a misery for so many people.

5. The Government believes that ASBOs are a powerful tool in the fight against disorderly behaviour and we are keen that local authorities should make use of what is a very flexible tool. The Local Government Association (LGA) and the Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO) are drawing up a joint protocol on how, and in what situations, ASBOs can be used, and how the various parties involved should work with one another. In addition we are looking at ways for identifying and promoting best practice in the use of ASBOs.

ASBOs : A Case study in Derbyshire

In the summer of 1996 the tranquillity of Whitfield Cross, Glossop was shattered when a new family moved into the Neighbourhood. Soon complaints began to be made to the police and other agencies relating to nuisance caused by the couple who regularly shouted abuse, insults and threats towards neighbours and passing residents. There were also late night shouting and drunken arguments between the couple. Residents compiled a dossier of evidence of their behaviour and handed it to the police. Following an application by the local police in September, the Court granted Anti Social Behaviour Orders against the couple. Both were ordered by the magistrates not to play loud music between 11pm and 9am in excess of noise levels set for both inside and outside adjoining premises. Neither were they allowed to use threatening words or behaviour in the presence or hearing of any owners, occupiers or residents of the nine local homes. Any breach of the order would be a criminal offence and could result in their arrest and, on conviction, up to five years imprisonment. The neighbours have stated that it was a triumph of the community working together to fight off ‘bullies’ who destroyed their quality of life.

Royston Smith, Chief Inspector at Derbyshire Constabulary, said "the experience of initiating the first successful police-led application leads me to believe that ASBOs will become an important tool (in addition to other criminal and civil remedies) for the community safety partnerships to use in order to reduce crime and disorder. We should not underestimate the deterrent effect of the new powers on the behaviour of others, and their potential to help develop safer communities".

Neighbourhood Renewal

6. The Social Exclusion Unit’s report on deprived neighbourhoods (published in September 1998) set the scene for developing a national strategy for neighbourhood renewal. The strategy has four key outcomes for those in deprived neighbourhoods: better education, better health, lower unemployment and less crime. The report set out a 3-strand approach to developing the strategy:

National policies, such as welfare reform, to deal with the underlying causes of social exclusion;
Area programmes, such as the New Deal for Communities and Surestart zones, to test out promising ideas for turning around deprived neighbourhoods; and
A fast track, policy development process involving 18 crosscutting teams, on issues like anti-social behaviour, to help fill ‘missing bits of the policy jigsaw’.

7. Already, across Government, departments are working to create the conditions for healthy, vibrant neighbourhoods where disorderly behaviour is not tolerated. The Department for Culture, Media and Sport, for example, is developing an action plan for social inclusion, setting out what it is doing to strengthen communities in deprived neighbourhoods by encouraging better provision of culture and leisure facilities and greater community involvement.

The New Deal for Communities (NDC)

8. The Department for the Environment, Transport and the Regions (DETR) have committed £800 million over 3 years to support this programme which will provide funding for the intensive regeneration of small neighbourhoods. The programme supports plans that bring together local people, community and voluntary organisations, public agencies, local authorities and business to tackle problems such as: high levels of crime and rundown environment. The programme started with 17 pathfinder areas, selected because their problems were very severe. They focus on four outcome areas: jobs, crime, educational attainment and health. Crime and anti-social behaviour ranks high in the list of these priorities because of the debilitating effects that they can have in driving out business from a community, trapping people in their homes at the expense of community development and encouraging the economically active to leave an area altogether. Areas bid for funding and bids are judged against specified criteria, including likely impact on crime and disorder.

Manchester NDC

In Manchester, the NDC area contains 2.8% of the city's population but suffers 8% of burglaries, 8.7% of criminal damage and 14.6% of arson in the city. Almost half of residents believe the area to be covered by the new initiative is less safe now than it was two years ago. The pathfinder project has set itself a number of outcomes, including improving residents' confidence in their area, a 50% decrease in those classing the area as unsafe or less safe than two years ago and, by the end of year 10, reducing crime to or below the City average. Over the first three years there will be a fully staffed and operational neighbourhood warden scheme up and running, the development of new or renovated open space and a community centre open and operational.

Truancy and school exclusion

9. Children who miss school for no good reason are more likely to be drawn into anti-social or criminal behaviour. The Government has set the target of reducing 2002 truancy levels by 10% by 2004. There are powers in the Crime and Disorder Act 1998 to allow the police to pick up truants found in public places and return them to school or a designated place. And parents who condone their child’s non-attendance at school, can be fined up to £2500 or face up to 3 months imprisonment.

Over the next 3 years, almost £470m is being invested in a National Behaviour and Attendance Strategy, which aims to reduce the incidence of low level behaviour problems, reduce bullying, reduce permanent and fixed term exclusions, to ensure high quality provision for excluded pupils, and to reduce absence from school.

The programme will provide all secondary schools with behaviour and attendance audit and management training materials, and a support structure. In targeted areas, more intensive support will be available allowing schools to have multi-agency education & support teams for pupils and their families, police in schools, more truancy sweeps etc, in addition to the learning mentors and LSUs already provided through Excellence in Cities. This is being piloted this year in 34 LEAs with high street crime and truancy levels as the Behaviour Improvement Project.

10. There are new powers in the Crime and Disorder Act 1998 to allow the police to pick up truants found in public places and return them to school or a designated place. And for non-attendance at school, magistrates can require parents to attend court or risk arrest and if necessary, impose a fine up to a maximum £2,500 per parent per child.

Kent Local Education Authority

Kent Local Education Authority established an initiative called Rapid Response, for schools who have identified attendance problems. The team consists of an experienced Education Welfare Officer and Education Welfare Assistants, who go into schools, looking at existing strategies and offer advice and suggestions. In consultation with the headteacher, the team will work in the school on a daily basis, for a fixed period of time, implementing the Rapid response procedures. This will include contacting parents on the first day of absence, where no prior permission had been given. If there is no reply to the phone call, a letter is sent or the officer will make personal contact. They will try to find out the reason why the child is not attending school, and take steps to try to get the child back into school.

With the help of the Rapid Response team, attendance has improved between 5 and 10% in each school. They have been able to deal with problems quickly, and take appropriate action before disaffection settles in.

Race crime

11. The Government's action plan in response to the Stephen Lawrence inquiry report sets out a comprehensive programme to improve the way racist incidents are policed and root out the racist behaviour that is so destructive of communities. ACPO are producing an Action Guide to identify and combat Hate Crime, which will be issued in December 1999. Targets have been agreed for the recruitment, progression and retention of ethnic minority staff in the police, so that forces better reflect the communities which they serve. Guidance is to be issued to schools on recording racist incidents and reporting them to parents, governors and local education authorities.

Youth inclusion programme

12. This is a new initiative, which builds upon the ‘Youth Works’ scheme tried out in Blackburn, Leeds and Sunderland. It will put together an inter-departmental package to help 40 to 50 of the most at risk youth on 70 of our highest crime estates with money from the DETR, the DfEE and the Home Office Crime Reduction Programme.

Youth Works – Blackburn

Youth Works, a partnership between Crime Concern, Marks and Spencer and Groundwork, have funded outward bound courses, arts projects and the setting up of a Trailblazer’s Club of parents and residents to organise children’s activities, on a high crime estate in Blackburn. Children have also taken part in a scheme to recover stolen bicycles, which has recycled 600 bicycles. Indications are that juvenile nuisance on the Roman Road Estate has been reduced by 35% in the period of the project and the cost of damage to housing association property has been halved.