ASBOs- do they work?
20th February 2008
‘The ASBO’ has entered the nation’s vocabulary. Antisocial behaviour orders were first introduced almost ten years ago, and over 10,000 have been issued since. Over seventy have been issued in Southampton. But do they work? Some say that they are too often ineffective, and that some young people treat an ASBO as a ‘badge of honour’.
All the evidence is that, used in conjunction with other measures introduced since 1999, such as Acceptable Behaviour contracts, dispersal orders and parenting orders, they do. These measures address what is uppermost in many peoples minds – concerns about rowdy and threatening behaviour, vandalism and other types of activity that are not major crimes, but, taken together can makes peoples lives a misery – and of course less than half of all ASBOs issued have been to young people. Older people, sometimes the ‘neighbour from hell’ making everyone’s life unbearable have been issued with orders.
The Crime Reduction Partnership in Southampton has been one of the leaders in the country in taking forward the powers that local government and the police now possess concerning these kinds of anti-social behaviour. In the city in recent years, in addition to ASBOs a far larger number of ‘acceptable behaviour’ contracts have been agreed, together with seven dispersal orders – giving the police powers to disperse groups of people in ‘hot spots’.
Of course ASBOs and Acceptable Behaviour contracts (ABCs) don’t always work, but breaching an ASBO is an offence, and the courts can deal with the offender, and do. From the point of view of the person served with an ASBO or subject to an acceptable behaviour contract it is a very clear ‘last chance saloon’ – abide by an ASBO – stop doing the things that have caused it to be served, and you will not have a criminal record. Take no notice, and you probably will.
I have seen the effect of these measures in a number of neighbourhoods in my constituency. Streets and areas wilting under what they see as attacks on their safety and ability to go about their business in peace have been transformed by the effect of several ASBOs served on some of the leading perpetrators of such behaviour, with Acceptable Behaviour contracts for others, In some instances dispersal orders around places like local shops have been effective, where people congregating and committing acts of vandalism or threatening behaviour have made people think twice before using the local shops.
ASBOs don’t transform hooligans into angels overnight. But they do make people think twice about what they’ve been doing and even if reluctantly, and even if it is only from fear of the consequences once they’ve been named and recorded, change how they behave. And that is good news for everyone who wants to live in a safe Southampton.
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