We shouldn’t have believed the hype. For all of Tony Blair’s earnest focus on
Anti-Social Behaviour Orders, this flagship policy was barely in effect at all. By the latest figures, only 18,670 ASBOs were issued
between April 1999 and the start of 2010. According to this Policy Exchange report –
the best on the subject that I’ve come across – that accounts for around 0.009 per cent of all incidences of anti-social behaviour.
So let’s not pretend that the coalition is upending the criminal justice system by shifting away from ASBOs today. Neither, on the evidence at hand, is it doing away with an effective policy. Here’s a graph that I’ve put together from the latest Home Office statistics. It shows that over half of all ASBOs have been breached, at least once, by their recipients:
And if that’s not enough for you, then how about some of the points made by that Policy Exchange report? For instance, ASBOs have done little to dissaude the hardcore 5 or 6 per cent of offenders who are responsible for around 50 per cent of known crimes. And although around 6,700 ASBOs were breached between 2002 and 2007, only 14 perps were jailed as a result. Oh, and each ASBO costs around £3,000 to issue.
The question now is whether the government’s alternatives will work. There are studies to suggest that some of their more gimmicky measures, such as on-the-spot punishments, will have the desired effect. But I fancy the overall policing framework will make a bigger difference. The priorities of elected police commissioners, and the number of police officers that are unshackled from their desks and dispatched on to the beat – these are the factors that will matter when it comes to dousing the flames of anti-social behaviour
Comments