Anti-Social Behaviour - Essay Example

Anti- Social Behaviour (ASB) may be defined as any conduct that causes distress alarm or harassment to people who don't belong to the same household as that of the offender. It is behaviour against society; unfriendly behaviour which is detrimental and violates societal order and societal norms. It can also be defined as any behaviour that can cause annoyance and distress to anybody living, working or visiting the neighbourhood. Generally, society is based on principles that guarantee order and coexistence. Social norms prescribe behaviour in the society and thus any behaviour labelled as anti- social simply means that such behaviour is not fit in the society setup. ASB include conducts like verbal abuse, drug or substance abuse, violence against a person e.g. assault, sexual offences, harassment, vandalism, hate crime such as homophobia, xenophobia and racial hatred, noise e.g. loud music in the neighbourhood, failing to keep control of the pets e.g. dogs barking and threatening behaviour. It is important to realize that an anti-social behaviour in one location may not be necessarily an anti- social behaviour in another location. ASB vary from distressing behaviour to serious criminal to contrasting lifestyles. Therefore any agency dealing with ASB should define the behaviours classified as ASB. This so because there exists social differences between locations or societies even those that are close together. Anti- social behaviours need to be prevented or if the y have already occurred, law enforcement is necessary so as to avoid chaos and unrest in the society. The United Kingdom is one of the countries that take prevention of Anti-social behaviours seriously. In UK the two agencies that handle ASB are the police and the local authority. The local authorities receive twice the number of ASB complaints than do the police (home office, 2003). The two agencies always involve the people in the community and in some occasions the two coordinate their activities aimed at preventing and dealing with ASB. Having seen the agencies that deal with ASB in the UK, it is important to understand how these agencies handle ASB. There are a number of strategies used in handling ASB. These include: Prevention, enforcement, support of victims, witnesses and perpetrators and rehabilitation of the offenders. This paper seeks to appreciate the effects of ASB in the community or society, understand the linkages or relationships among the three areas of ASB i.e. Enforcement, Support and Rehabilitation, understand how services aimed to curb ASB are delivered in housing associations and the cost associated with the delivery of services by these associations. To start with, let us look at the possible effects of ASB in a community or society. Most effects of ASB on community are negative and detrimental In fact there is no positive effect known. ASB decreases the value of life of the victims, increases insecurity in the neighbourhood in which ASB is rampant thus causing anxiety in the inhabitants. ASB in a place can also derail development in such a place at the same time breeding disharmony, chaos and disorder. Generally, the effects of the ASB are detrimental to the well being of the community or society. Comparison of societies or communities where one has rampant ASB and the other with almost nil incidents of ASB can attest to the fact that ASB in a community is not a piece of bread. It is a vice that needs mobilisation of resources for its total abolition. The abolition of ASB in a community involves three major parts namely enforcement, support and rehabilitation. These three parts of ASB can work alone or in harmony. The three are linked in a way that calls for another after one is through or has failed. The strong links among the three parts can not be ignored. Enforcement involves involving the prescriptions of the law as basis of an action. This is only resolved to in appropriate cases. Some ASB are not serious as such and thus legal enforcement may not be necessary. Enforcement involves actions such as eviction orders, closure of premises, amongst other actions pegged on the law to prevent others not to engage in ASB ion future. Support as part of ASB involves a situation where the victim of ASB, the witness and the offender are protected and supported. The victims and the witnesses may be supported in the following ways: First, a high degree of confidentiality is maintained such that the identity of the complainant of given ASB is not released. This is meant to protect the witness or the victim from any possible revenge attacks from the offender. Second, the two are always informed on the progress of the case if reinforcement was used by being briefed on the dates and whether or not they are required to give statements in court. How can the offender be supported This is possible when the offender is prevented from being taken to court if he cooperates with the local authority or home office involved in dealing with the ASB of the offender. Support also involves furnishing of people with accurate information about ASB i.e. how they can approach institutions dealing with ASB to seek help. Rehabilitation on the other hand, comes after enforcement has taken place. There is no way that rehabilitation can herald the process of enforcement. Rehabilitation is mainly the necessary measures taken to ensure that the offenders do not continue with the ASB in future. It can take the form of community reparation orders where an offender is required to do some activities for a given period of time as the aut5hority involved may deem fit. This kind of action is meant to reduce the likelihood of others getting involved in such ASB. Rehabilitation also can take the form of Restriction of Liberty Order (RLO). This is an order to restrict the movement of the offender. An offender is supposed to stay in a given place for a given amount of time but not more than 12 hours. Age is considered in RLO in that if the offender is below 16, the court cannot give an RLO until it is satisfied of the services of support and rehabilitation that shall be availed to the juniour during that period of seclusion. What are the links among the three parts of ASB Support comes after ASB has been committed with the aim of preventing or facilitating enforcement. If Support facilitates enforcement, then enforcement takes place with an intention of preventing the other part of the population not involved in ASB not to commit any ASB in future. Since the ultimate objective is to prevent ASB and maintain social order in the society, the offender has to be taken through a rehabilitation process to ensure that he doesn't repeat the same ASB again in future. Enforcement and rehabilitation have to be carried out hand in hand otherwise the exercise of abolishing ASB is in vain. It was earlier mentioned that the process of abolishing ASB in the community with the aim of maintaining social order and harmony belongs with the police, local authority or housing associations commonly known as home offices in the UK. The housing association has a responsibility of not only ensuring that people have houses they desire but also the same people have pride living in those houses securely in absence of ASB. Housing association has a number of tools to prevent and stop ASB. In the prevention part the housing association designs good houses with additional security features such as CCTV, employs wardens who patrol the neighbourhood and involving the youth in constructive activities such as summer sports to divert them from engaging in ASB. However if prevention fails and ASB occurs, the housing association engages the following tools: Acceptable Behaviour Contracts- These contracts are not legally binding but they are agreements where the offenders agree and promise to stop causing distress. It has been found that such are highly effective despite that they lack the legal binding aspect. Anti-Social Behaviour Orders (ASBOs) - Here, the court gives a determination of how persons ASB affects the society the action to be taken to prevent such ASB. Patrol Officers- Apart from working to prevent ASB, they can also0 be handy ion an event where ASB has occurred. Despite the fact that they lack enforcement mandate such as that of the police, they have the ability to collect evidence of ASB and reassure the Victim of ASB that justice shall be done. Rehabilitating offenders- The housing association can refer the offender to organizations that offer medical, mental or counselling services with the aim of ensuring that the offender does not repeat the ASB. The above are among the services that are offered by housing associations to prevent ASB incidences. The question now remains, what is the cost of offering these services by the housing association. In UK, an estimation of the expenses of the agencies of ASB is 13.5 million .(Gateshead Housing Company, 2006) The cost is high but it is worth it. There is no conceivable price tag to societal harmony and order. If there is need to spend a fortune to prevent ASB, then we must do exactly that. Finally, of the three methodology of alleviating ASB, rehabilitation is more appropriate because it doesn't condemn the offenders in totality. It reckons that the offenders are also human beings who can change if given a chance. It seeks to understand the circumstances leading to the ASB witnessed from the offender and tries to provide favourable conditions to see whether the behaviour will change. It is advisable to embrace rehabilitation mostly after enforcement has occurred because of the possible guarantee of the behaviour not recurring again in future. Rehabilitation is a fair approach to ASB and as indicated earlier, it seeks to understand why the offender committed the ASB in the first place. AS Read More