Anti-Social Behaviour & Disorder
Policy Action Team 8: Anti-Social Behaviour
The PAT on Anti-Social Behaviour was one of 18 Teams set up after the publication of the first Social Exclusion Unit report on neighbourhood renewal. The Team included voluntary and statutory sector experts working at local and national levels from across the country.
Anti-social behaviour is a widespread problem. It is a problem that is more prevalent in deprived neighbourhoods. Its effects are often most damaging in communities that are already fragile and where services are overstretched. Serious hard-core perpetrators are small in number but their behaviour has a disproportionate impact on large numbers of ordinary people. There is no one accepted definition and anti-social behaviour can range from dropping litter to serious harassment. The lack of hard facts compounds the problem, but it is known that anti-social behaviour:
Is perceived to be twice as high in deprived areas than nationally.
Is considered to be a medium-to-large problem by three-quarters of social landlords, with some landlords recording figures of up to 285 complaints a year per 1,000 tenancies.
Appears to be increasing, with reports to the police of disorder offences increasing by 19 per cent from 1995-96 to 1997-98 and complaints to environmental health officers about neighbours rising by 56 per cent from 1993 to 1997.
Definition
There is no one accepted definition of anti-social behaviour. It can range from dropping litter to serious harassment including racial harassment. Serious hard core perpetrators are small in number but their behaviour has a disproportionate impact on large numbers of ordinary people.
Anti-social behaviour is often fuelled by wider problems of social exclusion such as poverty, unemployment, family breakdown, truancy and exclusion from school, drug dependency and community disorganisation
Recommendations
To remedy this the Government has agreed the recommendations in this report, which cover five broad areas:
Assigning clear responsibility for tackling anti-social behaviour to the Home Office nationally and to Crime and Disorder Partnerships locally.
Promoting prevention: by involving local residents and putting in place measures to create a physical and social environment where anti-social behaviour is less likely to arise in the first place.
Enforcement: intervening earlier, making better use of current powers such as Anti-Social Behaviour Orders and tackling the hard core
Resettlement: breaking the cycle of repeated anti-social behaviour and minimising perverse outcomes of exclusion such as homelessness.
Combating racial harassment: putting action to combat racism at the centre of anti-social behaviour strategies.
Action Plan
The action plan will be implemented over the next three years:
the first phase completes the process of national policy development and puts in place the foundations for local action
the second phase initiates local action
the third phase sets targets for measurable reductions of anti-social behaviour.
Getting a copy
Download: Pat 8 - Anti-Social Behaviour report 
PDF (505 kB)
Last update: Thursday, August 28, 2008