Use Of Anti Social Behaviour Orders Criminology Essay

Published: Last Edited:


In this essay I will focus on the main arguments against Anti Social Behaviour order (ASBO). This essay will focus on statistic and examining whether or not ASBO been successful in punishing and deterring the criminal behaviour in society by looking at the official statistics of (Home Office 2007) and the effect of media on ASBO. I will first explore what actually anti social behaviour is and what ASBO are. The Anti Social Behaviour (ASBO) has actually been receiving too many attentions in Britain. People in Britain have not faced anything like this before and ASBO led to wider criticism. ASBO came to power in 1998 under the crime and disorder act this enables the police and he local authority to use this power on young people whose behaviour is anti social that causing or likely to cause trouble in community. For many years the number of argument has arisen that the law enforcement agencies were not enough supportive in dealing with groups of young badly behaved in Britain. The current interest in ASBO may be influenced by the popularity of a rights culture that is people's right to behave how they like and others to behave they would expect them. It is very important that prevent the ASB from occurring in the first place for example according to the statists the young children like six years old and nine years old they starting to follow the older ones footsteps and start copying them as well as start smoking. When it comes to the positive side they do seem to work. Resident in areas affected by what viewed as yobbish and ASB have reported improvements in their neighbourhood when ASBOs have been issued to young people. To solution to the problem on youth crime there has been quit several of interventions to control the anti social behaviour this included the ASBO and the local curfew scheme .The ideas was to control youth crime in society with their behaviour that will cause or likely to cause problems. The local curfew schemes declare designated public spaces as places that young people cannot enter at certain times unless accompanied by an adult(Newburn 2007). . According to the recent news a boy who is fourteen year old who was given an ASBO only for kicking footballs against the wall of a neighbour's house. He has been forbidden to kick a football in his local area (BBC ). This is led to a demonization and criminalisation of youth and the evidence of the (BCS 2008) showed that youth crime has gone up rapidly. When you talk about the strain theory it suggest that the crime is the result of individuals being blocked in terms of mainstream society from reaching certain goals and under the consequent strain they seek deviant or criminal ways to reach those goals. According to the statistic of Home Office shows that the ASBO have been issued to people who had mental health problems there was an argument for that treatment would be more appropriate to people with mental health problems. According to the date of home office that shows that young people who had mental problems and learning disabilities was given an ASBO in the UK. The survey of youth offending teams showed that the ASBO had a long term effect on young people and this is led to mental disorders problems includes depression, suicidal problems and personality disorder. ASBO is a considerable cost a lot of money to the state this is because ASBO has to be imposed in court by a magistrate and consequently police, prosecutors and lawyer's time is required to prepare the cases and present the case in court this is wasting the government's time and their budgets. The statistics shows that the victims of ASB are often the elderly people, poor and the vulnerable young children. Breach of ASBO is a criminal offense and conviction may result imprisonment of five years. In general most of ASBOs are issued because of regarding the types of behaviour indicated earlier and there have been a incident where ASBO have been issued in more unusual circumstances and this led to argument for example in February in 2003 a 16 year old boy was banned from showing his tattoos and wearing a single golf glove this is led to criticism (Home Office 2008). The ASBO makes even more negative perceptions towards on young people in society and classing them as trouble makers in society and worsening relations between young people. Young people's misbehaviour is becoming more extreme theorists argue that this is a moral panic more a matter of increased media coverage and a growing law and order political agenda (Homel 2005).

Critics argue that these prioritise public order to the detriment of young people's friendship and community networks their opportunities and their quality of life according to the human right everyone has right to live and ASBO as taken their civil liberties rights. Arguments against them include concerns that young people's rights to anonymity are undermined if they are named and shamed that they demonise young people and unnecessarily bringing more teenagers into the criminal justice system and they stigmatise families (Newburn 2005).

The ASB of a few damages the lives of the many it is argued on broken window theory. When there is a broken window and has not been fixed this will increase the number of graffiti and when cars are left abandoned this will affect the vandalism measures as a well as intimidating the elderly people and fear of crime will follow fear will go up and people will trapped at home all the time (Roberts 2005 ). One of the main arguments was that the wide of ASBO has led to discrimination and targeting certain groups of young people in society. According to the survey on young people and children that they haven't had any knowledge of ASBO and they felt that ASBO is targeted towards them. Young people between 8 and 14 were ensure about behaviour that they should use to avoid in order to escape having measures used against them by police or local authority. Young people who commit anti social behaviour they are the most vulnerable in society because of their drug and alcohol addiction and mental problems young offender's institutions have argued that the transition from child to adult can be difficult in this situation rather than issue the ASBO to them young people need support to address and manage their behaviour (Smith 2003). According to the survey most of the young people when they been given an ASBO they did not that their behaviours was a anti social in society in this point the government have to educate the children and young people about the definitions of ASBO in schools. Because children take time to learn to abstract sense of right and wrong they may know that they will get into trouble if they behave in a certain way but abstract values develop as they mature into adults. If young children are labelled as criminal only because they have committed minor offences which they know that most of their friends do anyway they will start to believe that they are evil and should be put away or they will feel unfairly treated. A police officer is in the front line and can have considerable influence on youthful misbehaviour. It is important for the police officer to discriminate between the average childish misdemeanour and the really anti social offender is not an easy task in any situation. Because over reaction to childish misdeeds limits the options for more serious misbehaviour. In today's society the ASB is becoming concerning therefore the government should be looking seriously to amend the laws in order to protect all the population. There is a media effect on ASBO and from TV news and from movies people are getting the wrong. Media plays important role here in my opinion media shows the criminal act and report them to the public in a negative way rather than report them in a positive way. One more importing thing as well as this if the media giving the news related to crime with fascination in this case the crime ratio of that specific crime will increase for example the news always report on ASBO and interviewing young children with them this likely to encourage the young children to become anti social in the community. According to the statistics and evidence the short term prison sentences doesn't work in terms of increasing someone's behaviour and when the young children come out of prison it really could be worse. The ASBO may destroy welfare when it is being wrongly applied to vulnerable young children such as the children with mental problems, drug users and prostitutes (Slapper & Kelly 2009). On the other hand ASBO may contradict to other social policy such as safety in a community. People mostly get confuse about ASBO that how they should be behave in order to avoid ASBO and most people don't know that what it actually prohibits and what it allows. People who really help like drug addicts e.g. ASBO bans those people with drug addicts , mental problems and instead of using rehabilitation centres and funding educational programs in community it is ridiculous to ban these people from things that they have been addicted in.