Asbos ‘are a badge of honour’
Young people regard Asbos as a “badge of honour” and the orders are not necessarily the best way to deal with youth offending, a new report warns.
A review of anti-social behaviour orders (Asbos) by the Youth Justice Board (YJB) finds that not only are they viewed as “glamorous” by young people but almost half are being breached – suggesting they are not very effective.
The board calls for Asbos to be used as a “last resort” and says youth offending teams should work with sentencers to use other means of dealing with disruptive youngsters, for example parenting orders.
Asbos were introduced under the Crime and Disorder Act 1998 and came into force in April 1999. By September last year, 7,356 had been imposed. Breaching them can lead to a jail term, even when the original offence would not have resulted in custody.
Of the 137 orders reviewed by the YJB, 67 – or 49 per cent – were breached at least once, and of these, 31 per cent were breached more than once. Six of the 137 orders were breached six times.
These figures are backed up by the latest Home Office statistics, which show 42 per cent of Asbos issued between 2000 and 2003 were breached, raising questions about the orders’ effectiveness.
“High levels of breach had led some sentencers to question how much impact Asbos were having on the behaviour of individual young people,” today’s report says.
It suggests young people often do not understand the terms of their Asbos, which could result in many people breaking them. Others are just not prepared to accept the biggest restrictions on their lifestyles, such as hanging out with their friends.
The board says the threat of custody does not seem to deter many youths from breaching their orders, and many people questioned as part of the year-long review suggest that far from being a restriction, Asbos had the potential to become “glamorous”.
One magistrate told researchers: “It’s being used as a badge of honour.” A mother of three young men on Asbos added: “Some of the friends are left out now because they’re not on an Asbo. I know a boy that’s hell-bent on getting an Asbo because he feels left out.”
YJB chairman Rod Morgan said he was not against the orders, saying: “They can – and do – work incredibly well. But for Asbos to successfully reduce the likelihood of future anti-social behaviour, they need to be used correctly.
“That means exhausting every preventative measure in the community first, and ensuring that youth offending teams are not excluded from the Asbo process.”
Home Office minister Tony McNulty said: “Young people may claim that an Asbo is a ‘badge of honour’ but the novelty soon wears off as they realise the restrictions it places on their behaviour and the penalties if they don’t comply.
“Ultimately, if the Asbo improves the day-to-day lives of people in the community, then it is working.”
However, shadow home secretary David Davis said today’s report was another sign of the government’s “total failure to tackle crime” and showed Asbos were little more than a “headline-catching gimmick”.
Liberal Democrat home affairs spokesman Nick Clegg added: “All the available evidence shows we need to engage, not shut out, young people who behave badly if we want to prevent them from becoming the hardened criminals of the future.”
