UK OPINION

Targeting the young is a soft option

Away from the glare of publicity, antisocial behaviour orders (Asbos) have been under the most rigorous examination since they were introduced in the late 1990s. Under a new Liberal Democrat-Conservative administration, Camden council, in north London, has been engaging professionals from outside the authority - such as the mental health charity Mind, the civil liberties organisation Liberty, the government's Respect Task Force, and the police - in meetings with local residents to consider the authority's tough Asbo regime. "By doing an investigation of existing work, we can get a full picture of how well these work for Camden, says Keith Moffitt, the council leader. This means we'll look at both the visible things, like Asbos, as well as the support for families and children to nip antisocial behaviour in the bud."

Like Manchester, Camden has a reputation for operating one of the toughest Asbo regimes in the country, even dispensing orders in unconventional areas such as fly-posting. But voices have been raised since elections in May, when Labour lost control of the borough, about the cost and effectiveness of orders - and, crucially, whether money used to operate the regime could be targeted in a better way.

They are not alone. The Youth Justice Board (YJB), an agency appointed by the Home Office, has warned that the overuse of Asbos in England - 7,356 for all ages at the last count - meant that many youngsters regarded them as a "badge of honour". Rod Morgan, the YJB chairman, stressed that while the orders had worked "incredibly well" in some areas, they had to be a weapon of last, not first, resort.

The government and the police in England take a partial view of antisocial behaviour. It is sometimes rooted, dare one suggest, in class. Authority draws a distinction between a boisterous night out with the lads - plenty of drink, lots of noise, food fights, flying glasses and occasional scraps flowing onto the street - and what they call "more heavy-duty incidents" on public housing estates.

This is not to minimise the impact of persistent rowdyism, street crime, drug-induced burglary, and worse, in areas where the poorest in society experience a level of crime that would make the middle classes tremble. New Labour was right to target offenders - not always teenagers - with its Asbos.

But with police and councils, encouraged by the government and a gung-ho home secretary, John Reid, pushing for more Asbos to target "yob culture" - a favoured term borrowed from the right - are we in danger of criminalising a class of young people and pushing them further into crime?

The wider fear of the YJB, and other agencies on the frontline, is that young people - invariably working-class youngsters - are being targeted for one reason: they are easy pickings. While crime rates have fallen over the past 10 years, the number of teenagers passing through the courts is rising. Shauneen Lambe, director of Just for Kids Law, a new social legal practice in west London, shares the view of Morgan that, for police, arresting children is like "picking low-hanging fruit".

So is the government's onslaught on youth crime and antisocial behaviour leading to working-class children (and areas) being increasingly targeted, with officialdom, unwittingly or otherwise, pulling its punches elsewhere? "We are criminal ising children more, insists Lambe. I see kids in court for the most trivial things."

According to Lambe, the YJB and others working with teenagers, some young people are now treated with so much disrespect by police and authority that it is hard for them to show respect in return.

And those other youngsters higher up the social pecking order? They're just high-spirited.

Peter Hetherington
6 December 2006

http://society.guardian.co.uk/youthjustice/comment/0,,1964469,00.html

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