UK: ASBOs "demonise" children
01 March 2006
The Anti-Social Behaviour Order (ASBO) is "demonising" children according to the government's chief advisor on youth crime. Speaking to The Independent newspaper, Professor Rod Morgan, chairman of the Youth Justice Board, argued that "we are sucking into the criminal justice system behaviour which should be capable, and used to be capable, of being dealt with by informal, non-criminal means". Further, he warned "we should not forget the lessons of the 1960s and 70s of the labelling effect. The argument is that if you give a dog a bad name then the dog may live up to the bad name."
Morgan's comments reflect growing criticism of the government's flagship measure designed to restore a culture of "respect" to British society. In March Barnardo's chief executive, and former high level civil servant, Martin Narey criticised the "entirely routine" issuing of ASBOs to children (see Statewatch Vol 16 no 1). And in April Dr Jo Brayford, a senior lecturer in criminal and community justice, argued that the vagueness of what constitutes "anti-social behaviour" has potentially led to ASBOs "causing more problems than they solve and making the situation worse for some people". This, he claims, is amplified by the fact that the behaviour the government seems intent on clamping down on is "not what surveys reveal to be people's main concerns such as speeding, illegally parked cars and rubbish." These all top the list of what the public considers to be anti-social behaviour yet all the negative publicity is about young people and the homeless."
These concerns were reflected in a recent High Court ruling on the case of a teenager referred to as "T". Paragraph one of his two-year order forbade him from acting, or encouraging others to act, "in an anti-social manner in the city of Manchester". The two judges found the order to be "plainly too wide" and "plainly invalid" and emphasised the need to "carefully match prohibitions in an Asbo to the type of behaviour which it is necessary to prohibit".
It is the generality of ASBOs that has enabled them to often be used as a blanket solution, beyond their initial remit of dealing with low-level nuisance behaviour. In a recent example of this Merseyside Police have used one to combat organised crime. Magistrates made an order against David Turner, an influential figure among Liverpool's crime bosses and leader of the unruly and violent "Turner gang", banning him from the city centre between the hours of 6pm and 6am for ten years. According to Chief Inspector John Roy, this "innovative use of the Asbo" was necessary because "witnesses were too scared to go to court, but the Asbo application allowed them to give hearsay evidence, which we could use".
The Independent 23/4/06; The Times 10/4/06; Daily Mail 5/4/06; ic Wales website