Anti Social Behavior Evolution Dates - Essay Example

Anti social behavior History Anti social behavior evolution s back from seventies of last century. The post war scenario has resulted in serious political and communal conflicts. Unemployment propelled strikes and public demonstrations. These strikes were intensified and turned in some serious agitations. The conservative government was more concerned with law and order planned to project "crime" as a social evil while the left were opposed to mix crime with social issues. The politicians were unable to mix word Crime to any of social communal terms at both extremes of social behavior like permissiveness, youth cultures, demonstrations, public disorders, black immigration, student unrest, and trade union militancy. Margaret Thatcher the conservative prime minister was the initiator who linked crime as the internal social issue that affects the victims and society on a whole. In seventies the act carried out by burglars, violent union members were considered as a crime. The after math developments of the economy and the society being diversified has elevated the freedom of the society where common man handling guns for an immature criminal act. These activities were at times carried out even by the juvenile generation questioning the levels of freedom. These people being in the society damage the values and moral essence of the society. As the moral values of the society depletes the society at times may be regarded as harmful to survive. Keeping in view of the social values, the community has to be reformed at every stage to enlighten the generation to lead a disciplined life together. Margaret Thatcher largely succeeded in highlighting the impact on society but unable to implement. John major the successor had tried to unite the political concerns and the electoral concerns. The momentum for constructive authoritative move resulted due to the incidents of 1992 where the young offenders went on rampage. The reports indicate that 104.5 indictable were recorded by thousand population1. This issue was made political 1993 and was projected as major political issue. 1993 and 1995 were the years where there was a 25 per cent increase in the number of people imprisoned stands at about 74000. The above graph reveals that the crime rate has been on a raise from 1960 an according to report of house of common libraries depicts that there is an increase in crime rate from 1960 in England and Wales. 1 Source: The British crime survey Fig.2 The graph depicts that a major change has occurred after 1980 where it has been observed that the crime has slowly increased. The significance aspect of this is that the accused were the youth who were the main culprits in eve teasing, damaging properties, graffiti etc. youth turned violent, vandalism, and verbal abuses were major issues where as the repetitive nature of harassment like the noise, improper behavior created an unsocial atmosphere in the living environment When the concern elevates to an extreme level the unacceptable activities generated a social fear and commotion. The ignorance may become an excuse and the accused may turn more unbearable. There is a need to curb this menace at this initial stage to regulate it without reaching unacceptable levels. So the anti social behavior has gained importance. Anti social behavior has wider scope of concerns which may not be acute as a criminal offense, however in the long run people are experiencing the ill effects of ASB. The crime which has shaped into more social concern evolved from extremist activities to the acts perceived in unconscious states and out of rampage. The fact that 1991 to 1995 saw a huge raise in crime rate is visible in graph above. The legal initiatives taken in 1995 and 1996 kept a hold regulated the crime rate from that juncture. The acts like public order act, Environmental act, Housing acts existed to cater the existing requirements. To unify these acts and to cover all these above concerns under one roof "Anti social behavior orders" were issued in 1998. The law framed under "crime and disorder act, 1998". The anti social defined as acting in a manner that causes or is likely to cause harassment, alarm or distress to one or more people who aren't part of the same household. ( Crime and Disorder Act 1998, section 1.1). The anti social behavior act was a civil act that has been formulated to regulate the social disobedience acts like verbal, tenants abuse, alcoholic abuse, Vandalism, noise, nuisance, shoplifting etc. The policy was first implemented in England and Wales, Scotland has placed it own Anti social behavior act, and other states followed the regulations in tune with existing norms in England. A process was recommended for the implementation of the act as sometimes it is important to educate or to make aware to the parties that a compliant has been registered. The stages involve in knowing the issue in a particular area, assembling the accused and discussing the cause in front of police authorities and local community heads. As an initial measure a verbal warning is issued. If the case is with young people, as a confidence building measure a warning letter and promissory not is written and authorized with the accused young person and counter signed with their parents making them responsible for his future activities. The written format is circulated in that area. The final stage is forwarding the orders to legal court of law as an extreme unacceptable behaviour, the court of law investigates and release a decision. The key driving factors The law enables to combine efforts of the police and the local authorities as it would be difficult to locate the cause without the local support. The key performers in the act are the Magistrates, police officers, registered social landlords and housing trust A coordinator would be mediating the concerns on the anti social behavior. The locals are involved to prevent and to locate the root causes of anti social behavior. The legal and other local authorities were given importance to customize the order according to the situations prevailing in the region. The applicant and the accused are involved in the principle proceedings where as the authorities are not involved in the proceedings. A systematic approach in recording the number of breaching acts perceived by an individual, the number of warning and his previous acts are considered and analyzed to forward a decision immediately. An individual is made to present in the concerned area to estimate the exact situation ease the pressure on the victims and to derive a prefect scene of the prevailing situation.Strategic alliances with the home departments and local governing authorities of various sections like the environmental welfare and education departmental heads to look on the issues related to their region in concern. Authoritative freedom to police and local bodies like the landlords to curb the anti social behavior by active result oriented decision making. To decrease the time in decision making by opening separate courts to exclusively address the anti social orders at regions under concern. The decision making is instantaneous and involves fines, if rejected or argued fine should be paid at exponential basis. Diversionary activities elevating the root causes which have had forced the accused to perceive the anti social behavior like "London borough of tower hamlets graffiti projects". The extreme orders issued to an individual would be for his life time. A series of action plan is implemented on the accused right from written warning to legal orders. The act was amended to encourage the public by rewarding their involvement, the practitioners to analyze and come up with suggestions, the structures like anti social behavior specialist, crown prosecutions specialists and anti social response courts The success rate of ASBO and other legal initiatives has influenced in decreasing the crime rate as depicted in fig.2. As people are becoming more aware of the nature of ASBO applications the range of activities covered under the anti social behavior were increased to make it more robust. New social concerns like drug trafficking were included enabling to have monitoring on the residential drug accuses. The anti social behavior act has enhanced the features of the existing Crime and disorder act 1998, Criminal justice and public disorder act 1994 these provision enable the police and other legal authorities to claim more authority to curb the anti social act. The sources have depicted that out of 10 individuals accused there were seven successful solutions to the anti social acts. The extent of the act was revised in 2003 to make it suitable to prevailing systems. The public opinion was that the order was more open in nature and doesn't define it boundaries giving powers to authorities to curb anything to every thing. The perceptions of the people were that the ASBO has been useful for up to 40% and still there are some serious concerns about anti social behavior. The order has no definite set of rules to specify above an individual can be measured to have breached anti social order. ASBO are ineffective and bureaucratic and time-consuming process, projecting accused persons in public may degrade the mental character of the individual. Magistrates in Manchester, in the north of England, on 3 November 2004 served a 17-year-old with an antisocial behaviour order (ASBO) banning him from engaging in various kinds of unruly or abusive behaviour. The order also prevents him from publicly associating with more than three people, and in particular with five named friends, on pain of criminal penalties of up to five years in prison Dolan commings The Home Office's definition, 'behaviour, whether or not in itself criminal, which causes or is likely to cause harassment, alarm and distress to other people' has raised commotion as it may be applied to any act perceived in the society. The local community has the possibility of mishandling the power due to the vague non criminal offenses. There was mixed perception that the funds are misused to investigate into no result yielding entities. The suggestions were strong on rehabilitation and reconstruction of the individual attributes. Rosie crown has noticed that in spite of deployment of anti social act the number ASBO cases were increased and there is no improvement in the situation. The above graph shows that there is an increase in the number of cases registered in three years even after the ASBO has been implemented. The negatives aspects of the ASBO are that it was used more for the advantages of the conservatisms than the other parties. There were deeper societal issues like poverty which were not highlighted or addressed. Amidst all these happenings the special committee report on the Anti social behavior has drawn conclusions to make the act more effective with recommendations like: the police reforms, the performance ratings for the local authorities. The government has highlighted the need to address the concerns of the victims in the area under consideration. The government has to involve the authorities to offers services to the people in need and thus build the goodwill. The governments were encouraged to conduct surveys to estimate the perceptions of the people living in that region. The act should confined boundaries and work according to constraints thus making it more effective. The act makes arrangement for professional approach with expert study to decide the reality of nuisance cases. The committee has observed that decisions were made by a few individuals who might be making no knowledge of the prevailing situations in reality. The committee also suggests that the children and the youth should be educating about the social behavior and tolerance levels existing in the society. The committee recommends for clarity in the research carried locating the perceptions of the individuals to formulate more effective local strategies in near future. Increasing the community justice centers would address the local issues efficiently. The committee believes that any activity which results in damage in the physical property of crime should be addressed equally. The committee has highlighted a major indifference of the service organizations unwilling to participate in the conglomeration held for the sake of the local community. According to the committee youth offending teams have to involve in forwarding an ASBO. The reports stresses on parenting which has been ignored. Parents should be trained on effective parenting to give them an opportunity to control their children character. Reference: Lawrence Singer (Home Office) September 2004 , Community Support Officer (Detention Power) Pilot: Evaluation Results : http://www.crimereduction.gov.uk/policing04.htm Tackling anti social behavior, The story so far and the move to respect http://www.respect.gov.uk/whats-being-done/Respect_Tackling_anti-social_behaviour_the_story_so_far_and_the_move_to_Respect.pdf#search=%22anti%20social%20behaviour%20act%2Bresults%22 Chapter-37, Crime and disorder act, 1998, http://www.opsi.gov.uk/acts/acts1998/98037--b.htm#1 Page-9, Anti social behavior, Youth justice board http://72.14.235.104/searchq=cache:UzmPSvcqNiEJ:www.crimereduction.gov.uk/antisocialbehaviour55.pdf+anti+social+behaviour+order%2Bkey+factors&hl=en&gl=in&ct=clnk&cd=1 Page-4,Anti social behavior, do they work, http://www.eastcambs.gov.uk/docs/publications/corpservices/asbleaflet.pdf British crime survey data, http://www.crimestatistics.org.uk/output/Page54.asp Rachel Armitage, September 2002, tackling anti social behavior, What really works, http://www.crimereduction.gov.uk/antisocialbehaviour11.pdf Anti social behaviour order, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ASBO Joe hicks & Grahame Allen, 12 December 1999, A century of change: trend in UK statistics since 1900,http://www.parliament.uk/commons/lib/research/rp99/rp99-111.pdf Stuart waiton, Jan'06, Anti social behaviour and construction of a crime, http://www.spiked-online.com/Articles/0000000CAF28.htm Anti social behaviour act,2003, at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-Social_Behaviour_Act_2003 2005,The government reply to the fifth report from the home affairs committee session -05 HC 80 http://www.official-documents.co.uk/document/cm65/6588/6588.pdf#search=%22does%20ASBO%20succeed%22 28 Oct, 2005, Anti social behaviour orders, what does critiques of ASBO's say, http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/3961921.stm Rosie coven, 30sep 2005, ASBO'S use double despite criticism, The guardian, http://society.guardian.co.uk/crimeandpunishment/story/0,,1517657,00.html http://www.spiked-online.com/Articles/0000000CA9C0.htm Read More