Anti-Social Behaviour
Anti-social behaviour measures have fast become one of the government's primary means of crime reduction. While a definition of anti-social behaviour is still vague (ranging from low-level nuisances such as noise to the more serious criminal behaviour of harassment), it is nonetheless underpinned by a heavy legislative framework. Introduced in the Crime and Disorder Act 1998, anti-social behaviour was given more prominence with the Anti-Social Behaviour Act 2003, which amended the legislation to extend the powers of the police and other local authorities. Even more recently, it was further strengthened through the Serious Organised Crime and Police Act 2005 with legislation that allows for the distribution of Anti-Social Behaviour Orders (ASBOs). ASBOs can be served on any individual who has been the subject of complaints for anti-social behaviour, even if he/she has not committed a crime per se. ASBOs restrict access to specific areas of a town, a street or an estate, or can prevent groups of people from meeting. Being in breach of an ASBO is itself a criminal offence, and can lead to a prison sentence of up to five years.
Knowledge and evidence gap
During the past year, general concern has been expressed by civil liberties groups and others over the use of anti-social behaviour legislation and its impact on community relations, in particular with respect to the serving of ASBOs. Indeed, despite a strong focus on tackling anti-social behaviour within the government's crime reduction agenda, a number of discrepancies persist in relation to definitions of anti-social behaviour, instruments used to tackle it (in particular the balance between prevention and enforcement measures), and the way anti-social behaviour affects various communities.
More importantly, and of increasing concern to Runnymede, there is no evidence or knowledge of the way Anti-Social Behaviour Orders (ASBOs) affect black and minority ethnic communities. Our initial desk research suggests there is no consistency across the UK in the way that ASBOs are being used, for what purpose or against whom. What is known is that wide geographical disparities can be catalogued between the number of ASBOs issued in, say, Greater Manchester, serving 155 ASBOs between 1 Jan 2004 & 30 June 2004, compared to Leicestershire serving only 4.
From our point of view, anti-social behaviour, ASBOs in particular, are relevant in two ways to matters of racial discrimination, race equality and community cohesion. We urgently need to explore and better understand: (1) their disproportionate use in the black and minority ethnic communities, and (2) whether they are being or could be used in combating racist violence and harassment.
(1) The extent to which ASBOs are served disproportionately on black and minority ethnic people has caused organisations, such as ASBO Concern, to raise questions about the their disproportionate use. ASBO Concern have been monitoring their effect on vulnerable communities, such as the mentally ill or young people, but neither the Home Office Anti-Social Behaviour Unit nor any other organisation is currently monitoring the impact of ASBOs on black and minority ethnic groups. Since the long-term evidence is that black and minority ethnic people are over-represented at every stage of the criminal justice system, and that this over-representation is to some degree at least the result of racism or racially discriminatory practices, there is no reason to assume that the use of ASBOs is also not disproportionately (and with negative impact) applied to black and minority ethnic people. This is of critical importance and evidence must be collected with urgency.
(2) The extent to which ASBOs are or could be used to tackle racist violence and harassment is not well documented. The last comprehensive review of ASBOs conducted by the Home Office dates back to 2002. The review refers to racial harassment as one component of anti-social behaviour and as being a factor in the serving of a number of the ASBOs reviewed. However, there is no detailed, consistent or comparable analysis of how they have been used for such behaviour or whether racism constituted the primary anti-social behaviour by the perpetrator or was only a part of it. Three years later, the Anti-Social Behaviour Unit at the Home Office still does not record the serving of ASBOs by the behaviour of the offenders or the type of offence. Consequently, there is no knowledge of how frequently ASBOs are used to tackle racist violence and harassment, nor whether such use is an effective or useful mechanism against racist violence and harassment - a mechanism with potential for being encouraged or extended across police force and local authority areas. As we continue to see racist violence and harassment taking place on our streets and in our neighbourhoods, new tools for intervention need to be found, and the usefulness of ASBOs must be explored in this context.
1 S Campbell (2002), A Review of Anti-Social Behaviour Orders, Home Office Research Study no 236, London: Home Office
