News

When the early 1980s comedy show Not the Nine O'Clock News ran a sketch about a man repeatedly arrested for non-offences such as "wearing a loud shirt in a built-up area", it was taken as a hugely exaggerated satire on police racism. Twenty-five years later it reads more like a genuine list of restrictions imposed on the recipients of antisocial behaviour orders.

Is arresting someone for "walking on the cracks in the pavement" really any more ridiculous than for answering the front door in their underwear (banned under a recent Asbo issued to a 27-year-old woman in East Kilbride)? Does the offence of "loitering with intent to use a pedestrian crossing" seem so far-fetched to the prostitute recently banned from carrying condoms, the 13-year-old who can now be arrested for using the word "grass" anywhere in England or Wales or the 87-year-old man whose Asbo prevents him being sarcastic to his neighbours? And surely even comedy scriptwriters couldn't have imagined north Norfolk's use of antisocial behaviour legislation to curb a herd of misbehaving pigs.

Defenders of the Asbo point to the undoubted misery that can be caused to communities by antisocial behaviour, and the need for legislation with teeth to combat it. Home secretary Charles Clarke, while announcing advice for councils to "name and shame" Asbo recipients, recently linked the increased use of Asbos with a corresponding fall in crime. "For the first time in years people are starting to feel the effect of the action taken to tackle the problem," he claimed.

Elsewhere, however, there is concern that the Asbo is fast becoming the one-size-fits-all solution to an ever-growing list of activities considered eccentric or inconvenient.

Introduced in 1999 as part of the Crime and Disorder Act 1998, Asbos were initially viewed with caution. In England and Wales only 158 were imposed between April 1999 and March 2000 - but that figure has since leapt up. Local authorities and police forces are embracing Asbos with growing enthusiasm, and last year nearly 1,000 were issued in the first six months in England and Wales. A similar escalation has been seen in Scotland where the use of Asbos has increased by 87 per cent between 2002-3 and 2003-4.

The bulk of this growth can be attributed to a small number of local authorities, police forces and, particularly in Scotland, registered social landlords. This has resulted in a huge geographical variation in the numbers of Asbos imposed.

For instance, six times as many Asbos are imposed in Greater Manchester than in neighbouring Liverpool, and in the first six months of last year 128 Asbos were issued in West Yorkshire compared with just 22 in South Yorkshire. Over the same period only 21 Asbos were issued in the whole of Wales compared with 931 in England. Furthermore, in Scotland, a recent survey by the Scottish executive concluded that the pattern of Asbo use across the country bore little relation to the actual incidence of antisocial behaviour.

This postcode lottery has raised concerns that some local authorities and police forces are using Asbos to bypass the criminal justice system. As a civil measure imposed by the magistrate's court, an Asbo involves a lot less legwork for local authorities and the police than seeking a conviction through the criminal courts. But, because breaching an Asbo is a criminal offence punishable by up to five years in prison, recipients can end up receiving far harsher penalties than if they had been arrested, charged and convicted of their original offence.

A 26-year-old homeless man from Birmingham recently received two sentences totalling five years after breaching his Asbo by begging. But begging itself is not an imprisonable offence and it doesn't fit with the original legislation's guidance that Asbos should not be targeted against activities that can be dealt with effectively under existing legislation.

Another area of concern, that also appears remote from the original intention of antisocial behaviour legislation, is the use of Asbos against people who clearly have personality or mental health problems and will therefore be highly unlikely to be able to comply with the order's terms. It is difficult to see what can be gained by the Asbo banning an alcoholic from drinking alcohol or the order that bans a suicidal woman from jumping in the river Avon.

"Evidence continues to emerge of Asbos being used by police and local authorities as a catch-all to sweep off the streets anyone whose behaviour is eccentric or to some people is disagreeable," says Harry Fletcher, assistant general secretary of the National Association of Probation Officers (Napo).

Fletcher is the author of a recent Napo report that calls on the Home Office to review the role and purpose of Asbos and the resulting sentencing discrepancies. Published to coincide with the launch of a multi-agency campaign, Asbo Concern, the report claims that some councils are using Asbos to clear sink estates of problematic families and individuals. "This appears to avoid dealing with wider environmental problems on those estates and also avoids putting in place wider social policies that would deal with the underlying problems of antisocial behaviour," it says.

To a certain extent, the increasing use of Asbos is undermining efforts to reduce the use of custody for young offenders. In England and Wales about 54 per cent of all Asbos are imposed on people under the age of 18. Over one-third of these orders are breached and 43 per cent of breaches result in custody.

This is in stark contrast to the situation in Scotland where, until October last year, Asbos could not be given to anyone under the age of 16. Current figures show that just 13 per cent of Asbo recipients in Scotland are under 18 and a report recently commissioned by the Scottish executive concluded that "it appears very unlikely that the extension of the Asbo regime to young people aged 12-15 will generate a dramatic increase in the overall use of orders."

According to a report from the Youth Justice Board, as most Asbos are issued by the civil courts, they are not recorded or tracked by youth offending teams. Opportunities to intervene with preventive strategies may therefore be missed.

"A young person issued with an Asbo in a civil court may only come to the attention of the Yot when they are in a criminal court, facing a custodial sentence after breaching their order," says the report.

According to Chris Stanley, head of youth crime at crime reduction charity Nacro, there is little evidence that Asbos have any long-term effect on young people's behaviour. Money would be far better spent on improving the use of preventive strategies, he claims.

"Asbo breaches have created a fast route into custody and a situation where young people are ending up in custody for low-level disorder offences which would not warrant a custodial sentence under normal circumstances. With 82 per cent of young offenders re-offending within two years of release from custody, we know that prison is not effective in tackling the root causes of offending behaviour or reducing future offending."

Frances Crook, director of the Howard League for Penal Reform, also believes that Asbos are too blunt a tool to offer an effective solution to antisocial behaviour.

"Current legislation has the effect of widening the net of the criminal justice system, by criminalising naughty children and their parents, the mentally ill and those in social housing," she says.

"We appreciate the distress that serious antisocial behaviour can cause individuals or communities, but, in order to address this effectively, imaginative and effective child-centred interventions are needed." Asbos, no matter how popular they become, are never going to fit that bill.