No full-text available
To read the full-text of this research,
you can request a copy directly from the authors.
Rougher Justice: Anti-Social Behaviour and Young People
Abstract
Anti-social behaviour has become a major political preoccupation of government and combating it is now a major plank of criminal justice policy. Yet anti-social behaviour as a concept has been little studied, and the notion has often been accepted uncritically. This book aims to meet this need, providing a critique of the government's use of the concept of anti-social behaviour and of youth justice strategy more generally. Rougher Justice foregrounds the perspectives and experiences of young people themselves. It draws upon recent developments within the field of cultural criminology to provide an alternative interpretation of the construction of ‘youthful criminal careers’. It is underpinned by research in three separate areas which focus on the new youth justice, youthful criminal careers, and anti-social behaviour and acceptable behaviour enforcement. Central to the book is an ambition to understand youthful delinquency from the inside and to recover what is lost in much of New Labour's youth justice strategy --and the methods adopted by the Youth Justice Board to evaluate this strategy, that is to say a situated and interpretive understanding of youthful delinquency drawn from the perspective of and in the voices of young people themselves.
... Rules can be applied differentially to particular groups, who become 'labelled' as 'outsiders' (Becker, 1963, p. 9). Indeed, commentators have noted that interpretations of ASB are disproportionately applied to 'marginalised' and 'minority' groups (Millie, 2006), including the homeless (Moore, 2008), ethnic minority groups (Otu and Horton, 2005), social housing tenants (Burney, 2005) and young people (see Burney, 2005;Squires and Stephen, 2005;Squires, 2008;Millie, 2009). These groups represent threatening others, whose behaviour is of concern even when 'essentially harmless'; meanwhile 'technically deviant' behaviour (Erikson, 1962, p. 308) by the so-called 'law abiding majority' (see Karstedt and Farrall, 2007) is overlooked. ...
... These groups represent threatening others, whose behaviour is of concern even when 'essentially harmless'; meanwhile 'technically deviant' behaviour (Erikson, 1962, p. 308) by the so-called 'law abiding majority' (see Karstedt and Farrall, 2007) is overlooked. This is exemplified by the branding of archetypal adolescent behaviours as 'anti-social', such as playing ball games in communal areas and 'hanging around' (Harradine et al, 2004;Burney, 2005;Squires and Stephen, 2005;Moore and Statham, 2006). Young people provide a 'specific and identifiable target' (Case et al, 2011, p. 155). ...
... In this context, interpreting the behaviour of 'others' in often 'fleeting social interactions' depends on the general level of trust afforded people with whom 'we share no personal history' and about whom we 'have only weak information' (Smith et al, 2010 p. 136). Indeed, the information we do have about young people, from media representations for example, often defines them in terms of the threat that they (allegedly) pose (Squires and Stephen, 2005;Goldsmith, 2008). Policies aimed at tackling ASB in local areas must consider the impact of such interpretations and examine how they can be affected. ...
‘Anti-social behaviour’ (ASB) has become an important political and social issue across Europe over the last two decades, despite much debate over the term itself. In England and Wales there is an assumption that what constitutes ASB is ‘common sense’ and that it represents behaviours that are ‘patently unacceptable’. Yet critics argue that the term is ‘slippery’ and, in practice, disproportionately applied to specific groups in society, including young people. This article reports the findings of a study in Greater London exploring interpretations of ASB among adults and young people. It shows that interpretations vary according to the age of the person identifying the behaviour, as well as the age of the perceived ‘victim’ and ‘perpetrator’. Adults are more likely to interpret behaviours as anti-social, particularly those associated with young people. The article considers how perceptions of risk influence interpretations and calls for greater inter-generational ‘connectedness’ to improve understandings of behaviour between adults and young people.
... The nature of student behaviour in such cases and how best to deal with it are subjects that have long interested researchers, policymakers and practitioners. In the context of this study, "challenging behaviour" can vary from disagreements to physical violence, illicit drug use and related activities and sexual harassment and assault (Squires and Stephen, 2005;Millie, 2009;Hayden, 2010;Millie and Moore, 2011;Martin et al., 2011a). ...
... S.1 (1a) has been considered problematic (Martin et al., 2011a), "because it includes behaviour "perceived" to be a threat rather than actual threatening behaviour" (Martin et al., 2011a, p. 6). This loose definition of ASB suggests that it can lead to acts not previously considered ASB to fall under its umbrella (Squires and Stephen, 2005;Millie, 2009;Millie and Moore, 2011). The term "violence" also causes issues, as its definition differs across countries and disciplines; furthermore, an issue relates to whether psychological harm must be included, alongside physical harm, when defining the term (Osler and Starkey, 2005;Waddington et al., 2006;Martin et al., 2011a). ...
Purpose
Challenging behaviour among school pupils has been the focus of extensive research in the UK and beyond; however, there has been a lack of recent comparable research on these issues in the further education (FE) sector. This paper aims to report the findings from a larger PhD research examining the introduction of interventions based on restorative justice implemented in colleges. This study focuses on the extent and nature of challenging student behaviour, as explained and understood by the students and staff.
Design/methodology/approach
The author used an interpretivist exploratory case study design and mixed qualitative research methods. The institute considered in the case study, Restorative College (pseudonymised), has education provisions for students aged 16+ years and enrols over 16,000 students annually. In the academic year 2017/2018, Restorative College committed itself to becoming a “restorative” institution. Data collection consisted of three stages (including semi-structured interviews, analyses of institutional policy documents and focus group discussions) and was conducted over 14 months.
Findings
The extent and nature of challenging student behaviours in the FE sector are significant and merit further research and analysis to support policy development.
Research limitations/implications
Given the research methods adopted (single case study and qualitative research), the findings do not necessarily represent experiences across the FE sector.
Originality/value
This study emphasises the need to expand research on challenging behaviour in the FE sector, which has been limited thus far, also making a contribution in this direction.
... Under the New Labour governments, the first generation of ASB controls targeted both problematic behaviour and spaces considered prone to anti-social activity. While the 'usual suspects' targeted in other jurisdictions were frequently caught up in the web of constraints directed at ASB (NAPO 2005), a crucial difference was that young people quickly became a privileged target (Bannister and Kearns 2012;Squires and Stephen 2005;Waiton 2005). This was especially so in those acutely disadvantaged neighbourhoods where young people disengaged from education and drifted into 'street corner society ' (MacDonald et al. 2010). ...
... people (Squires and Stephen 2005). At the same time, however, it has created the PSPO with its sweeping new powers to ban perceived problem behaviours and activities from large geographic zones. ...
Over the last two decades and across a number of jurisdictions, new measures enshrined in criminal law and administrative codes have empowered authorities to exclude unwelcome groups and individuals from public spaces. Focusing particular attention on recent reform in Britain, this paper traces the evolution of contemporary exclusionary practices, from their initial concern with proscribed behaviour to the penalisation of mere presence. The latter part of the paper offers a critical assessment of what has driven these innovations in control of the public realm. Here consideration is given to two possibilities. First, such policy is the outcome of punitive and revanchist logics. Second, their intentions are essentially benign, reflecting concerns about risk, liveability and failures of traditional order-maintenance mechanisms. While acknowledging concerns about the over-eagerness of scholars to brand new policy as punitive, the paper concludes that any benign intentions are overshadowed by the regressive and marginalising consequences of preferred solutions.
... Applying these results to societal norms can help to understand the relationship between antisocial behaviours and morality, because it is characterized by deviations from societal norms and insensitivity towards other people's interests. It affects the social cohesion and fragments shared values [44]. Apologies play a major role in the participants' judgments. ...
... Applying these results to societal norms can help to understand the relationship between antisocial behaviours and morality, because it is characterized by deviations from societal norms and insensitivity towards other people's interests. It affects the social cohesion and fragments shared values [44]. Apologies play a major role in the participants' judgments. ...
The aim of this study was to identify different positions regarding the way in which 412 teenagers of secondary schools, including 214 young adolescents (Mage = 12.5, SD = 1.5) and 198 old adolescents (Mage = 16.5, SD = 1.5), integrated four informational cues (the level of antisocial behaviour, the consequences in the classroom, the apologies and the teacher’s attitude) for judging the degree of gravity of anti-social behaviour during a Physical Education (PE) lesson. The judgments on the fairness and level of the punishment were also collected. Cluster analyses (K-means), ANOVAs, and chi-square tests were done. Three clusters were observed. The first cluster was called “Intolerance to Aggression”; the second was termed “Depends on Type of act and Apologies” and the third was termed “Tolerance Near Zero”. The relationship between PE and moral judgment is discussed.Keywords: Adolescents; Antisocial behaviours; Gravity; Punishment; Justice; Moral judgment.
(PDF) Psychol Behav Sci Int J Gravity, Punishment and Justice : A Clustering Analysis in French Teenagers' Judgments of Antisocial Acts Psychology and Behavioral Science International Journal. Available from: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/358190521_Psychol_Behav_Sci_Int_J_Gravity_Punishment_and_Justice_A_Clustering_Analysis_in_French_Teenagers'_Judgments_of_Antisocial_Acts_Psychology_and_Behavioral_Science_International_Journal [accessed Jan 28 2022].
... This perspective could also be said to be true of how vulnerability is conceptualised in the UK. Evident public animosity towards some young people, and a perceived increase in deviance among young people as a social group, adds further complexity to how their 'vulnerability' is seen (Squires and Stephen, 2005;Brown, 2005;Kelly, 2003). ...
This is the latest evidence scope in child sexual exploitation, originally written and published in 2015 by RiP. It was revised by Jessica Eaton in September 2017 and published by RiP in October 2017 to reflect the evolving understanding and evidence in child sexual exploitation practice and theory. It is open access and owned by RiP.
... Noise, rowdy gatherings, begging, public drunkenness and so on were lumped together loosely as 'trouble' to be managed by resourceful police discretion. Modern anti-social behaviour legislation, by contrast, tends to disaggregate such behaviour into a number of discrete offences such as noise, gatherings exceeding a certain size, public drinking, skateboarding and so on and equips local authorities and social housing managers, concerned with the management of public space, with a spectrum of specific offences each with its distinct penalty (Squires, 2008;Squires and Stephen, 2005). These are then combined with wider spatial powers such as Public Space Protection Orders (Garrett, 2015b). ...
This article explores issues surrounding the legitimacy of private sector provision in criminal justice. It examines changes in ideas about legitimate coercion which have made private sector involvement possible. It then elaborates two models of the processes whereby private sector entities attempt to obtain and maintain the legitimacy of their activities in the eyes of the public.
... Young people are often, therefore, characterized as imprudent and irrational in relation to decisions about alcohol consumption, substance abuse, crime, and so forth (Kemshall, 2008: 22) and are blamed and punished accordingly. Many have argued that this "responsibilization" discourse has ensured that collective/social risks (e.g., youth unemployment) are transformed into individual choices (lack of enterprise/skills deficit; Kemshall, 2008, p. 23;Rose, 1996Rose, , 2000Squires and Stephen, 2005). There is, therefore, little policy concern with the structural context and life experiences of young offenders (Scraton and Haydon, 2002, p. 325), yet these are key to understanding the world of risk inhabited by young people (Furlong and Cartmel, 2006) and cannot be ignored. ...
This chapter provides the first comprehensive overview of Japanese youth justice, locating it within wider conceptual considerations of youth justice, such as welfare versus justice and penal populism, before outlining its historical development and questioning its uniqueness. It discusses the contested notion pre-delinquency and its net widening potential and its place in the wider trends in Japanese youth crime. The study critically assesses the overall organization, administration, and impact of the Family Court (equivalent to youth or juvenile courts) and summarizes recent developments in youth crime policy. Although the Family Court is at the center of youth justice, it involves many social welfare elements. Despite the increasingly punitive rhetoric, policy, and legislation for juveniles in Japan, there is no evidence that more juvenile offenders are being committed to the adult courts. Overall, we found a clear precedence of social welfare over criminal policy considerations.
Keywords: Japan, youth justice, juvenile justice, welfare, pre-delinquency, police guidance, youth crime, sentencing, penal populism
... The Crime and Disorder Act in the UK, regulating public behaviour and mostly targeting individuals who disturb public order, was introduced (1998) before the culture of control (Garland 2001) came about. The Criminal Justice and Public Order Act (1994), introduced by Michael Howard (Home Secretary under a Tory government) aimed to criminalise individuals with an unconventional lifestyle, such as gypsies, squatters and ravers (Hughes 2007); the 1994 New Labour policy plan BA Quiet Life: Tough Action on Criminal Neighbours^ (Squires and Stephen 2005) tempted us to broaden Garland's insights into this public order domain by piloting extensive empirical research with more than 400 policy documents and 72 in-depth expert interviews. Regulating public space is an important task of mayors in most Western countries and can lead to exclusionary mechanisms (Young 2007(Young , 2009. ...
This article provides an in-depth study of the Act on Municipal Administrative Sanctions 1999 (MAS), which is the first major piece of legislation regulating antisocial behaviour in Belgium. MAS provides municipalities with an instrument to sanction antisocial behaviour and conduct perceived to disturb public order. The article uses Garland’s (2001) thesis on the culture of control to analyse whether MAS has led to increased government control and the exclusion of significant groups of the population. The research is based on a multiple case study in which the application of MAS was analysed over a 25-year period of security policies in Belgium (1985–2010). The Act’s implementation was studied in the two Belgian cities of Antwerp and Liège in order to consider the influence of the Flemish government and the Walloon government, respectively, in this policy area. The article uses insights from this comparison to revisit the culture of control thesis and its limitations in understanding the political competition that exists over the formulation of policies on antisocial behaviour.
... Ook door Britse criminologen wordt het netwidening effect van de CDA en de ASBO vernoemd. De ASBO leidt volgens Pakes (2005) tot het strafbaar stellen van steeds meer gedragingen, waarbij 'the emphasis lies on youth control' (Squires & Stephen, 2005: 6). Bemiddeling werd in Groot-Brittannië slechts sporadisch vernoemd. ...
... Besides this fact, government emphasis on the 'criminalization' of disorder and anti-social 'behaviour' [65,34], along with the emphasis on partnership working, linking local municipalities and other public agencies into policing activities, particularly those relating to 'behaviour in public spaces [7]. The policy of anti-social 'behaviour suggests an increasingly disciplinary society and, contrary to contemporary political rhetoric regarding social inclusion, a markedly more exclusive one, selectively targeting a particular range of stigmatized behaviours and individuals for reasons that are often beyond the perpetrators control and, at best, for which they are seldom solely responsible' [67]. Worldwide the security sector has become a large sector with private security firms performing many different tasks68697071. ...
The evolution from government to governance leading to multiple partnerships in policing and in pluralization of regular police functions is widespread in Europe. Although this trend is frequently described and analysed by Anglo-Saxon scholars, empiric research findings outside the United Kingdom are scarce. In this article we focus on the organisation of the Belgian regular police force and the passing on of particular police functions to other -as well private as public- partners and agencies. We analyse the situation after the major police reform in 1998, and situate the research findings in the broader context of changes in police systems in different countries. Police centralisation and decentralisation movements do influence outsourcing tendencies. We develop a theoretical overview of the issue of plural policing on the one hand and a theoretical framework to allocate reforms in police systems in different countries on the other. For Belgium we analyse the organisational and operational setting of the regular police, and public and private agents performing police tasks. The empirical research is based on an in-depth study of 25 years of security policy in Belgium (interviews with politicians) and an extended document analysis [ 86,87]. Concluding we discuss the specific place the regular police, called a ‘cannibal police force’ still takes within the security governance, leaving no place for outsourcing to private partners.
... These measures were criticized by a number of criminologists particularly for net widening effect. According to Pakes (2005), ASBO's lead to more and more penalties on behaviour, in which 'the emphasis lies on youth control' (Squires & Stephen, 2005, p.6). Mediation is only mentioned sporadically. Not one law mandates this as compulsory for conflict solution (Burney, 2006). ...
Deze bijdrage zoomt in op de verhouding tussen politie en politiek. Peacekeeping is van oudsher de kerntaak van de politie. We beschrijven deze stelling aan de hand van resultaten van empirisch onderzoek, zowel in de Verenigde Staten als in Europa. We stellen in deze bijdrage vast dat de verwachtingen van de politieke klasse ten opzichte van de politie afgelopen drie decennia grondig transformeerden. Steeds meer kwam de klemtoon te liggen op de bestrijding van criminaliteit. Dit gegeven strookt niet met een realistische visie op het concrete politiefunctioneren, dat voornamelijk uit preventieve handelingen bestaat. Dit laatste lichten we toe aan de hand van historische inzichten, waaruit blijkt politie vooral de dagelijkse rust en kalmte in de buurten moest bewaren. In deze bijdrage lichten we een aantal oorzaken toe voor deze politieke visieverandering. Eerst en vooral is een falende overheid de indirecte aanleiding tot de vraag om een ‘sterke arm’. Een overheid die er niet in slaagt sociale rechtvaardigheid voor haar inwoners te garanderen, leidt tot oproer. De bevolking keert zich tegen de meest zichtbare vertegenwoordiging van die overheid: de politie; waarop dan wordt gereageerd met een zero-tolerance politiek. Een tweede oorzaak voor een accentverschuiving naar criminaliteitsbestrijding is de economische crisis: politie is te duur geworden. Andere veiligheidsberoepen (en zelfs de private sector) nemen het dagdagelijks contact met de bevolking over en politie blijft voorbehouden voor de grootschalige criminaliteitsbestrijding. Deze bijlage plaatst deze nieuwe verhouding tussen politie en politiek onder een kritische loep.
The terms ‘knife crime’ and ‘knife culture’ were first established in British crime discourse at the turn of 21st century and represent a particular re-making of youth in post-industrial Britain. The generational impacts of advanced neoliberalism have intensified conflict between marginalised young people in the UK as they compete for success in high-risk informal economies and navigate the normalised brutalities of everyday violence. However, the impact of extreme inequality and structural violence on children has not been central in the response to youth-on-youth knife homicides in the 2000s and 2010s. Instead, these decades have been characterised by punitiveness and surveillance, increasing discriminatory stop and search practices and extending powers that target and control young people. Through conjunctural analysis of the making of ‘knife crime youths’ in the UK, this paper considers how shifting forms of cultural racism have been able to rearticulate child violence as cultural deficit, using race once again to work through the contradictions of late capitalism. Applying a radical criminological understanding of deviance labelling as a specific response to crime, this paper asks: To what extent is the construction of ‘knife crime’ a continuation of Policing the Crisis in the 21st century? And why has this process been relatively uncritiqued by practitioners and academics that contribute to ‘knife crime’ discourse? Using document, archive and discourse analysis this paper presents a social history of ‘knife crime youths’, depicting the formative interactions that have so far been obscured by the matter-of-fact dominance of the label and its practices.
Through analysing the history, meaning and context of ‘knife crime’ we can challenge certain misunderstandings, ambiguities and fabrications wrapped up in the concept. However, working beneath the political discourses and the pronouncements of policy makers (and the ‘knife crime industry’) there are professionals who confront the complex realities of interpersonal violence in everyday practices and actions. And there are also young people themselves. Drawing on qualitative research with both youth justice practitioners and focus groups involving seventy-eight young people in southeast London, this chapter provides a grounded sociological understanding of the shifting experiences of youth that are concealed and obscured by assumptions contained within the ‘knife crime’ label. Empirical accounts of gentrification, exploitation, institutional racism, over-policing and community fragmentation are presented here—in order to provide an alternative understanding of the knife crime phenomenon through the lived realities of those most impacted by the label and its meaning.
While this book is focused upon the British ‘knife crime crisis’, there is wider global context and a longer historical perspective to the British story that we discuss in this chapter. The significance of knives in history and culture is an aspect of how we make sense of ‘knife crime’, one that is often overlooked. In order to bring this more global perspective to bear upon what is an especially British concern, we address three global and historical themes which help to inform our approach. Firstly, drawing upon history, archaeology and anthropology, we explore the evolution and cultural significance of knife design, symbolism and use, referring both to civilising processes and the broader ‘aesthetics of weapons’. Secondly, through historical criminology, and histories of violence we explore the consistent but varied depictions of ‘knife fighting’ in particular times and places, paying special attention to anthropologies of masculine honour and heroism and the identification/imputation of certain national or regional cultures and values. The third and final dimension concerns when, where and how knives manifest themselves as a particular crime problem, demonstrating the wider influences which might predict and go on to shape such societal reactions. While the UK does not have the highest international rates of knife violence, it is certainly one of the societies currently most preoccupied by this troubling social problem. By contextualising the British knife crime phenomenon within a history of ‘knife crime’ construction, we aim to position this issue as something both old and new; the latest manifestation of an embodied and symbolic form of violence.
Drawing upon the critical conjunctural analysis in Policing the Crisis (Hall et al., Policing the crisis: Mugging, the state, and law and order, Macmillan, 1978) this chapter considers the context in which a distinct mobilisation towards ‘knife crime’ (following ‘mugging’ as the new ‘black crime’) occurred, before the label was publicly defined. Contextualising this moment within the politics of a New Labour government from 1997, we consider how the contradictions of an authoritarian social democracy re-articulated the law and order society through a focus on ‘youth crime’ and anti-social behaviour. The publication of the Macpherson report and the official recognition of institutional racism within the Metropolitan Police is a significant cultural moment—the ‘Macpherson effect’—that characterises this period. Existing racialised discourses of ‘gun culture’ and ‘gang culture’ already provided justifications for robust and proactive policing strategies at the turn of the twenty-first century, but the post-Macpherson mobilisation towards ‘knife crime’ (anticipated in the 1997 Knives Act) is a particular development that is often overlooked. The introduction of the ‘knife enabled’ crime recording feature code in 2001 fundamentally changed the way crimes were categorised and reported, culminating in the problematic public definition of ‘knife crime’ as we understand it today. The interaction of events that lead to this moment will be analysed here to establish, again drawing upon Policing the Crisis, a pre-history of the label and its constitution.
The moral panic concerning young people and knives reached a peak in 2007 and 2008 as news media reported a spike in child knife homicides. The culmination of public pressure and politicisation set the scene for a significant expansion of police powers and related enforcement activity, a renewed commitment to stop and search, a major roll-out of Tasers to front-line police, new legislation, new offences, enhanced sentencing, and new criminal orders. The persistent criminalisation and ‘othering’ of Black youth during this moment very much mirrors the response to ‘mugging’ in the 1970s; a politics of law and order used to re-establish political authority in the midst of economic crisis. This chapter considers how the uncertainties following the global banking crisis in the 2000s, and the contrived politics of austerity which followed, established the foundations for a more authoritarian and disciplinary public policy regime. Here we situate the political focus on ‘knife crime’ in this moment as one amongst a number of important political shifts during a temporary rupture in the maintenance of political authority. This chapter follows the ‘knife crime’ chronology and narrative up to the present, including its return to the headlines around 2015, finally drawing attention to the interaction between the extension of police powers and the political uncertainty during and after Britain’s Brexit referendum and the Covid ‘lockdowns’ which followed.
A topic neglected in the academic literature is an exploration of police officers’ perspectives on policing anti-social behaviour involving children and young people.
The purpose of this thesis is to contribute to bridging that gap in the existing literature.
This thesis describes a qualitative study that collected data by conducting semi-structured interviews with serving police officers from a United Kingdom police service.
The academic literature indicated that the Crime and Disorder Act 1998 resulted in considerable changes to policing anti-social behaviour. Therefore, this study wanted to capture the police officers’ perspectives of policing anti-social behaviour before and after the implementation of the Act. Therefore, serving police officers who began their
service prior to the legislation were recruited.
A key finding of this thesis is that the legal definition of anti-social behaviour is imprecise. Consequently, police officers defined and interpreted anti-social behaviour differently according to their unique worldviews. However, this study found that a key component of police officers’ definitions of anti-social behaviour is their understanding of respect. Police officers tended to define anti-social behaviour as conduct that
showed disrespect or was inconsiderate to other people.
This study found that since the mid-1990s, the police officers had noticed changes in the policing of anti-social behaviour involving children and young people. The types of
changes they noticed included the demand for policing anti-social behaviour due to
the public’s expectations, and the policing priority given to it. Police officers perceived
that ‘traditional’ anti-social behaviour involving children and young people gathering in
public spaces was now less prevalent and instead, a larger policing issue was the
emerging phenomenon of cyber anti-social behaviour.
The police officers indicated there had been changes in the police service’s response to the anti-social behaviour of children and young people. Police officers suggested
there were differences in their discretion to informally resolve anti-social behaviour
incidents because of an increase in accountability for their response to it. Additionally,
the ethos had moved away from criminalising children and young people for anti-social
behaviour, and instead, offering them conditional social support to help them desist.
The multi-agency response to anti-social behaviour provided new insights into the causes of it and the vulnerability of children and young people. This study identified
that police officers held contrasting perspectives about their organisation's approach
to anti-social behaviour involving children and young people.
There are implications for further research on the policing of anti-social behaviour. The
research findings indicated that now academics need to be careful about using terms
such as ‘the police view’ because police officers have multiple different perspectives
on anti-social behaviour. Additionally, the focus of the literature was on ‘traditional’
anti-social behaviour caused by children and young people in public spaces, however
that needs reviewing because of the emergence of cyber anti-social behaviour.
Furthermore, the literature tends to link anti-social behaviour with low-level crime.
However, due to the recent association between anti-social behaviour, child criminal
exploitation and child sexual exploitation, the relationship between it and criminal
offences requires revision.
Over recent decades, there has been a lot of academic and political focus on anti-social behaviour, but less attention on the everyday moral judgements that can inform what we perceive to be anti-social. This is despite politicians’ claims that anti-social behaviour reflects a moral decline. This article draws on a focus group study from the North West of England and on ideas from criminology and philosophy. People’s assessments of anti-social behaviour are found to be informed by judgements of morality, most often in terms of ‘doing what’s right’, having respect, and abiding by the Golden Rule, to ‘do to others what you would have them do to you’. Understandings of anti-social behaviour are stretched so far by the public that they can range from littering through to tax avoidance, but what these behaviours have in common is their perceived breaching of our day-to-day moral standards. Implications are discussed.
This paper explores the process of punitive reform through a cultural theory lens. The existing literature focuses on high-end punishments of historical pedigree e.g. imprisonment or the death penalty. This paper instead takes as its focus low-end, contemporary punishments. In doing so, it provides original insights into the utility a cultural methodology can bring to understanding punitive reform in the digital age. It tests the applicability of Philip Smith's theory of the cultural life of punishment to case studies of the Anti-Social Behaviour Order (ASBO) and its replacements in England and Wales, the Criminal Behaviour Order and the Injunction. The ASBO was a punitive zeitgeist of its time becoming rooted in popular culture. However, it was ultimately abolished after attracting a predominantly negative cultural narrative. Thus far, after attracting some controversy at the legislative stage, the Criminal Behaviour Order and Injunction have received minimal scrutiny, despite being more problematic than their predecessor. This paper argues that the lower cultural impacts of the new punishments are responsible for the lack of scrutiny.
Project Chameleon is a school-based educational programme relating to crime, UK law and social moral positioning. Qualitative data were collated from three focus groups with child participants and two focus groups with university psychology student volunteers. The data related directly to the individual experiences of child participants and student volunteers supporting the facilitation of the programme. Three overarching themes emerged from the data: Personal Experiences, relating to individual learning, attitude and behavioural changes and how individuals used the information provided by the programme; Programme Delivery, which examined all aspects of how the programme was taught to child participants; and Session Content and Issues, discussing the topics and any relevant problems occurring whilst participating. Recommendations for future school-based interventions are discussed, including delivery style, interactivity, dosage and tailored content.
This article presents findings from a study of the use of anti-social behaviour (ASB) warning letters, Acceptable Behaviour Contracts (ABCs) and Anti-Social Behaviour Orders (ASBOs) with 3,481 young people from four large metropolitan areas in England which challenge dominant narratives about their use and impact. The findings unsettle prevailing beliefs concerning the targeted use of ASB interventions to tackle low-level incivilities and the timing of their use within a young person’s deviant trajectory. They also contest the logical sequencing of behaviour regulation strategies by demonstrating the haphazard deployment of ASB sanctions within complex webs of prevention, ASB and youth justice interventions. The article concludes by considering the findings alongside recent youth justice trends in England and Wales.
Recent commentary on the punitive turn has focused on the repressive nature of criminal justice policy. Yet, on a marginalised council estate (social housing project) in England, residents appropriate the state in ways that do not always align with the law. What is more, where the state fails to provide residents with the protection they need, residents mobilise informal violence that is condemned by the state. An ethnographic analysis of personalised uses of criminal justice questions the state-centric assumptions of order that have informed recent narratives of the punitive turn. It also calls for a reassessment of the relationship between democratic politics and criminal justice by drawing attention to popular demands that are not captured by a focus on punishment alone.
In this article, I explore the negative labelling of young people in contemporary Britain by referring to tabloid headlines and articles, official statistics, political discourse and legislation. I argue that the numerous deviant labels attributed to youth by the popular press and the political class create a skewed vision of them. This leads to a generalised and constant feeling of fear of young people who are marginalised, stigmatised and othered. Consequently, politicians tend to carry out populist crackdowns, rather than enact measures to deal with the structural problems at the origins of many of young people's difficulties.
De evolutie van “government” naar “governance” brengt in Europa het ontstaan van een grote variëteit aan politiële partnerships en de pluralisering van de reguliere politiefuncties mee. Ondanks het feit dat deze trend frequent werd beschreven en geanalyseerd door Angelsaksische auteurs vond er weinig onderzoek plaats buiten het Verenigd Koninkrijk met betrekking tot deze evolutie. In dit artikel spitsen we ons toe op de organisatie van de Belgische reguliere politie en het doorschuiven van specifieke functies naar andere - zowel private als publieke - partners en actoren. We analyseren de situatie na de politiehervorming in 1998 en situeren de onderzoeksbevindingen in de bredere context van veranderingen in politiesystemen in verschillende landen. Centralisatie- en decentralisatiebewegingen beïnvloeden de tendens tot uitbesteding. Wat België betreft analyseren we de situatie op organisatie en operationeel vlak van de reguliere politie, en van publieke en private actoren die politietaken uitvoeren. Het empirisch onderzoek is gebaseerd op doctorale resultaten (Devroe, 2013). In het besluit openen we de discussie omtrent de specifieke plaats die de reguliere politie inneemt, die we hier noemen de “kannibalistische politie”, in het veiligheidslandschap. Tot voor kort werd in België weinig plaats gelaten voor het uitbesteden van politietaken aan private partners, in tegenstelling tot het Verenigd Koninkrijk, Frankrijk en Nederland. Daar lijkt nu evenwel snel verandering in te komen.
The expansion of degrees and postgraduate qualifications on policing has come hand in hand with the need for a more scholarly and research-based approach to the subject. Students are increasingly encouraged to apply research to practice and this book is specifically designed to bring clarity to the concept of empirical research in policing. As an introduction to the theoretical explanations and assumptions that underpin the rationale of research design in policing, this book clearly illustrates the practical and ethical issues facing empirical research in a policing context, as well as the limitations of such research. Introduction to Policing Research brings together a range of leading scholars who have a wide range of experience conducting police research. Topics covered include: professional development, police culture, policing protests, private policing, policing and diversity, policing in transition, policing and mental health, policing and sensitive issues. This book is perfect for undergraduate and graduate students on policing degrees, as well as graduate students and researchers engaged with criminal justice. It is also essential reading for police officers taking professional and academic qualifications. © 2016 selection and editorial material, M. Brunger, S. Tong and D. Martin.
This paper sets out to critically explore the use of anti-social behaviour orders (ASBOs) in relation to young people with learning disabilities. It brings together an emerging body of evidence, from a range of sources, which suggests that these marginalized and vulnerable young people are over-represented amongst those made subject to ASBOs. In this context it will provide a critique of existing practice, within both welfare and criminal justice agencies, which is typified by a lack of awareness and understanding of learning disability. Finally, it will suggest that the concept of diagnostic overshadowing may provide a useful way of thinking critically about current ASBO practice, and suggest that approaches which fail to address the underlying difficulties faced by young people with learning disabilities are unlikely to produce positive outcomes.
Dutch politicians claim that disorder and nuisance in the public domain have grown out of hand in deprived areas and that local inhabitants call for more repression. Recently, new administrative measures were introduced to tackle these issues more effectively, some of which were almost exact copies of British measures like the ASBO. Studies on ASB have usually focused on general views among the population. The present qualitative research studies the assumptions that the situation with respect to ASB has got out of hand and that the call for repression is dominant amongst local inhabitants. It is based on intensive fieldwork including observations and over 300 qualitative interviews with social workers, policemen, troublemakers themselves, and residents of 11 so-called problem neighbourhoods in four major Dutch cities. The study shows a more nuanced and mixed local public discourse on this policy landscape than politicians would like us to believe.
The introduction, expansion and reform of anti‐social behaviour (ASB) powers over recent years in England and Wales have witnessed the extension and intensification of interventions designed to exert control over children's ‘troublesome’ behaviour, with those residing in marginalized and socially excluded contexts proving a particular target for the use of surveillant, correctional and ultimately punitive ASB measures. The ASB agenda resonates with the state's approach to social policy more broadly to define, legislate and sanction in relation to the duties and responsibilities it views as fundamental to the membership rights of a law‐abiding citizenship. Charting the continuities and shifts within youth justice policy generally and ASB policy specifically, this article will argue that developments in each reflect a consolidation and escalation of the criminalization of social policy within England and Wales. Focusing explicitly on the use and impacts of dispersal powers (to be rationalized as ‘direction powers’ under current coalition government proposals), it will be argued that criminalizing modes of state interventions such as dispersal/direction powers are likely to promote children's hostility and exclusion from a law abiding citizenship and to extend the criminalization net.
In recent years ‘community safety’ has received renewed levels of interest and investment from national governments and local authorities. This has culminated in the proliferation of a diverse range of in/formal policing strategies incorporating crime reduction and/or crime prevention. The policies and programmes developed to deliver ‘community safety’ reflect local concerns as much as national commitment. One such programme is Scotland's Community Warden Scheme, which provides the focus of this article. Community Wardens are characterised as a ‘uniformed, semi-official presence’ within an extended policing team, focusing on the improvement of community safety measures. Drawing on innovative empirical data generated in Dundee, this article critically evaluates the positive and negative attributes of the Community Warden Scheme from the perspective of the Wardens. It highlights the key themes of developing relationships with the local community; establishing and addressing local policing priorities; multi-stakeholder working; and, the tensions between Community Warden management and practice, to make suggestions about how the strengths of the programme can be maintained and the weaknesses addressed. The article aims to make an important contribution to debates about current approaches to ‘community safety’ while engaging with the policy and practitioner aspects of its delivery.
The more people believe in a just world (BJW) in which they get what they deserve, the more they are motivated to preserve a just world by ones’ just behavior. Consequently, we expected school students with a strong BJW to show less deviant behavior as cheating or delinquency. The mediating role of teacher justice was also examined. Questionnaire data were obtained from a total of N=382 German and Indian high school students. Regression analyses revealed that the stronger students’ BJW was, the less cheating and delinquent behavior they reported. Moreover, the more the students believed in a just world, the more they evaluated their teachers’ behavior toward them personally to be just, and the experience of teacher justice fully mediated
the relation between BJW and cheating and delinquency, respectively. This pattern of results was in line with our hypotheses and consistent across different cultural contexts. It persisted when neuroticism and sex were controlled. The adaptive functions of BJW and implications for future school research are discussed.
This article draws on ethnographic research conducted into youth and crime over a 20-month period. It explores the meanings that young people, residing in a marginalized community, attached to what Evans et al. (1996) have described as the ‘neighbourhood dogma’ of ‘not grassing’. By unpacking and analysing the meaning of the term ‘grassing’ and by listening to the voices of young people the article examines a range of factors which underpin the ‘no grassing’ rule.
This paper takes the opportunity to reflect upon the trajectory and consequences of the anti-social behaviour policy framework in the United Kingdom (UK) from its inception to date. It contends that despite, and paradoxically because of, the interventions launched to confront anti-social behaviours, perceptions of these behaviours have remained stubborn to improvement. In effect, anti-social behaviour policy has fed negative stereotypes of youth and positioned young people as a metaphor for deeper social malaise. The paper suggests a theoretical framework for understanding the mechanisms through which this perverse consequence has been realized. This task is facilitated conceptually through an exploration of the meaning of tolerance and the considerations that inform (in)tolerant assessments by citizens. Further, we progress to consider evidence of the interplay between these assessments and forces impacting upon social (dis)connectedness in the UK. This enables us to demonstrate how the anti-social behaviour policy suite underpins the intolerance of youth.
This paper will highlight some potential dangers of pursuing the use of restorative justice (RJ) for juvenile offenders in Ireland. It will look at penal reforms of the past, in particular it will look at the work of Stanley Cohen and his examination of the development of “community corrections.” Social control theorists, like Cohen, often view changes in penal structures differently to reformists and examine the underlying impact of expanding the social control apparatus beyond the prison system. In this presentation I intend to use the template used by Stanley Cohen in the 70’s to analyse the development of restorative justice in the juvenile justice system. The dangers highlighted by Cohen will then be applied to restorative practices in order to provide a framework for the critique of this approach. While it is acknowledged that the development of such programmes are essential in developing an appropriate response to juvenile offending it is also important to critically discuss these projects to highlight the problems and potential dangers emerging out of their adoption. The focus of the paper will remain primarily on restorative programmes although many of the criticisms discussed can also be levied at diversionary programmes.
These are the full proceedings of a two day National conference on Young people and Crime, hosted by the Centre for Social and Educational Research.
The paper examines the views of children living in contrasting British suburbs: exploring their perceptions of the occurrence of anti-social behaviour (ASB), their anxieties about different types of incident, and their views on appropriate punishments. Based on interviews with over 260 children aged 11–16years, and 44 adults with a professional involvement in ASB, the evidence shows that the influence of home area on children’s perspectives of ASB varies according to the type of ASB under consideration. For ‘interpersonal’ ASB, children appear especially sensitive in the poorer area, where this ASB is much more common. Theories of normalisation regarding interpersonal ASB are not supported, as children in the poorer area are sensitised to the problems, rather than hardened, arguing for an urgent policy response. Regarding environmental ASB and the role of home area, the findings are reversed, and theories of normalisation are supported. Children’s lesser concerns about environmental ASB in the poorer, most affected area, pose rather different challenges to policy-makers, arguing for the selection of effective reduction measures at a local level, designed to better reflect the differing views of children in different areas. Identifying children’s perspectives brings new understandings to the multiple geographies of ASB, highlighting the importance of distinguishing between different types of ASB and raising awareness of the ways in which children’s perspectives may be similar and different from adults’ views. Our findings argue strongly for the central role of area in theoretical and applied ASB research, and a continuing emphasis on ‘the local’.
Over the last ten years, the UK government has made tackling anti-social behaviour (ASB) a priority in its discourses and through the introduction of a wide range of legislative and policy measures. In the development of the new politics of conduct a number of competing discourses have emerged in which binary oppositions are employed to symbolically differentiate the law abiding from the irresponsible. The focus of this paper is on the way in which disabled people, particularly those with mental health conditions are vulnerable to being constructed as victims and perpetrators of ASB. We explore the tensions and contradictions between policy developments in policing conduct and the requirement for housing authorities to take steps to meet disabled people’s needs even if this requires more favourable treatment. Drawing on empirical evidence of the way in anti-social behaviour measures have had a disproportional impact on disabled people the paper reflects on the failure of policy makers to acknowledge the complex material reality in which the anti-social subject can be constituted as both a victim and perpetrator. The use of regulatory mechanisms such as the ASBO we argue, may not only fail to address the underlying causes of problem behaviour but also can have exclusionary effects that exacerbates discrimination.
Tackling Anti-Social Behaviour (ASB) has rapidly become a key issue for the government. It was recently given central place in the 2004–2008 Home Office Strategic Plan, the Prime Minister being prompted to describe, in broad ideological terms, his government's ‘crusade’ against the anti-social within a ‘new consensus’ on criminal justice. Yet ‘ antisocial behaviour’ is often treated as if it were something new; a unique aspect of late modernity. Typically neglected are both the history of the concept itself and alternative understandings of the young, often disadvantaged, people who are the most frequent recipients of the ‘anti-social’ label. The article develops a critical analysis of the political and ideological significance of the problematization of ASB and the criminalization of social policy associated with enforcement driven ASB strategies.
Increasing criticism has accompanied the rising numbers of Anti-Social Behaviour Orders (ASBOs) imposed. In this short paper we review some of our own recent research findings in conjunction with other recent commentaries to question whether the declared intentions behind the introduction of the ASBO are being achieved in practice. We argue that there are a number of fundamental problems with ASBO enforcement. We conclude by urging for the resurrection of a critical and reflective practice in community safety policy development and implementation and for a recognition that there are more just and effective alternatives to our current, seemingly ‘enforcement led’, interventions.
Recognition that primary prevention is a key issue in criminology has been a relatively new development in the United Kingdom. There have been few large scale intervention strategies with children specifically aimed at preventing the early manifestation of delinquent behaviour, the transition between different phases of criminality over the lifespan, or the development of adult antisocial syndromes. Higher priority has been accorded in other countries, particularly in North America. However, the various approaches that have been taken elsewhere do not always fit within an overall theoretical approach or coherent strategy. This does not mean that researchers should be obliged to rigidly conform to a single approach, but it would be more helpful if those who intend to develop the area were able to plan their work within the context of some pre-existing theory, or series of theories, of prevention. Preventive medicine has much to contribute to this research agenda through its theoretical approach to the prevention of disease. This comes about first through its foundations within the academic discipline of epidemiology, and second through the clinical involvement of the professional subdiscipline of Public Health which has traditionally been responsible for the prevention of outbreaks of disease. Theoretical approaches to Preventive Medicine are heavily influenced by the work of the late Geoffrey Rose, former Professor of Epidemiology at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. © Cambridge University Press 2004 and Cambridge University Press, 2009.
Unresolved Questions about Police Cautions The last 15 years have seen a marked change in the official processing of juvenile offenders, as more and more have been officially cautioned. This development has not been produced by any change in the law, but by changes in police policies for dealing with juvenile offenders. The im plementation in 1971 of most of the Children and Young Persons Act 1969 had a relatively small and transitory effect on the trends in cautions and findings of guilt of juveniles (see Farrington, 1980, pp. 275-276). It is true that this Act gave statutory recognition to police cautioning (in the non implemented s. 5), and that the introduction of police cautioning schemes was influenced by the two White Papers which preceded it (Home Office, i965, 1968). Nevertheless, the change in official processing has been produced by the police (albeit under Home Office instructions) rather than by the law. Two key questions pertinent to this change in police policy are as follows: (1) After a police force introduces a cautioning (or juvenile bureau) scheme, to what extent do recorded cautions replace court appearances, and to what extent do they replace unrecorded warnings? In other words, does the police caution divert juveniles who would previously have been taken to court, or does it widen the net and drag juveniles into the official processing system who would previously have escaped it? (or does it do both ?) (2) What are the relative effects of recorded cautions, findings of guilt and unrecorded warnings (e.g. on recidivism) ?
This book presents a comprehensive overview of anti-social behavior prevention programs in pregnancy and infancy, pre-school, parent education and school programs (including the prevention of bullying). It emphasizes preventing the intergenerational transmission of antisocial behavior by focusing on family violence. It reviews whether risk factors and prevention programs have different effects on females as compared to males. Cost-benefit analyses of early prevention programs conclude that adult antisocial behavior can be counteracted effectively and cost-efficiently. © Cambridge University Press 2004 and Cambridge University Press, 2009.
This paper examines contemporary housing management practice by attention to a changing discourse within social policy, emphasising duties over rights. Current policy initiatives are based upon concerns about the collapse of foundational assumptions and a perceived decline in moral responsibility. This concern is most commonly articulated in debates about the existence of an urban underclass, linked to anti-social behaviour on housing estates. The paper argues that a communitarian outlook has exerted a significant impact on contemporary initiatives incorporating a strongly judgmental bias. As a consequence, housing practice discriminates between behaviour in social housing and privately owned property. Drawing upon post-liberal perspectives, the conclusion suggests that the predominance of a deontological discourse has resulted in policies of social control of residents.
Under the dehumanizing conditions of modernism, boredom has come to pervade the experience of everyday life. This collective boredom has spawned not only moments of illicit excitement—that is, ephemeral crimes committed against boredom itself—but larger efflorescences of political and cultural rebellion. In the same way, the machinery of modern criminology has organized a vast collectivity of boredom buttressed by rationalized methodologies and analytic abstraction. Against this institutionalized boredom, cultural criminology offers a rebellion of its own, and with it the possibility of intellectual excitement by way of methodological innovation, momentary insight and human engagement.
Juvenile justice developments tend to be conceptualized and explained in terms of their accommodation within the respective parameters of the welfare and justice models. Historically, the welfare era in England and Wales reached its peak in the early 1970s. Since then, the justice model has assumed ideological dominance. However, the reality of juvenile justice policies and practices would seem to be more closely in line with a third model, that of corporatism. The paper sets out its form and terms, arguing that it is a more appropriate description of the contemporary Anglo-Welsh juvenile justice system. © 1989 The Institute for the Study and Treatment of Delinquency.
The Northampton Juvenile Liaison Bureau has as its principal objective the diversion of young offenders from criminal prosecution. Utilizing their own direct observation, the authors examine both the 'diversion' process and the underlying arguments. They report that the boundaries of prosecution are indeed being pushed back, but conclude that the Bureau's stance is open to criticism in that little help is offered to the families of these young offenders, while prosecution decisions, taken in private, fail to reflect the wishes of either parents or victims. © 1989 The Institute for the Study and Treatment of Delinquency.
Anti-social behaviour, both criminal and non-criminal, has been at the top of the political agenda for some time. Within the housing management arena it is seen as a problem that can affect the whole standing of an area or estate and influence other functions including allocations and void control. This paper looks at the various strategies adopted by local housing authorities to deal with anti-social behaviour among their tenants. It is argued that whereas the problem has in the past been seen as part of managing 'difficult to let' or 'problem' estates it can now arise throughout an authority's stock due to processes such as the residualisation of social housing. This has led to the adoption of strategies which individualise the treatment of anti-social behaviour rather than addressing the wider difficulties faced by many anti-social tenants. Anti-social behaviour is placed within the ongoing debates around 'problem' estates, their causes and solutions. The recommended 'good practice' strategies are set out and consideration is given to the effect of the adopted strategies on the future role of housing management policy and personnel.
Studies of the economic restructuring of the UK suggest that the future labour market will be typified by increasing proportions of workers unemployed or subemployed in casual, informal, peripheral, non-standard jobs. Clearly the future working lives of many young people will be substantially different from those of their parents' generation, as full employment in regular, relatively permanent jobs gives way to more insecure and risky working lives. Some of the social problems that have accompanied the fracturing of previous youth transitions are reviewed and the idea that such problems are indicative of the emergence of a deviant, anti-social, anti-work underclass introduced. The focus is upon Teesside in north-east England, a locality which reveals these broad social and economic transformations in the most dramatic way. In conclusion, four themes which might inform future research on marginal youth transitions and social exclusion in the UK are outlined.
This article considers both Child Safety Orders and Local Child Curfew Schemes, as provided for by sections 11-15 of the Labour Government's Crime and Disorder Act. A number of objections have been raised regarding these two measures. Following a brief look at the measures themselves and at the aims behind their creation, I analyse the substance and merit of the various concerns that have been raised with regard to both measures. I conclude that many extremely important issues, both ethical and practical, have not been addressed satisfactorily.
New directions in research on youth transitions are examined, with particular reference to the research findings of recent studies from different countries. The convergence of evidence in the studies points to a significant shift of emphasis for the study of youth transitions and the need for a more interactive research process that enables the participants to articulate their own meanings and experiences. One limitation of the studies is that the participants are the ‘successful’ members of the generation, but it is clear from the evidence that the meaning of ‘transition’ has changed in ways that raise questions both about the links between social structures and individual agency and about new definitions of adulthood. Not only do we need to document in greater detail what transition means in the lives of this post-1970 generation, but also we need to ask how their new life-patterns are already responding to or shaping new forms of adulthood.
The school-to-work transitions of two samples of 16–19-year-old college students in the UK arc examined in terms of their vocational preparation and expectations of labour market entry. Current processes of vocational preparation are evaluated primarily from the perspectives of the young people themselves. The aims are to explore influences of structure and agency in young people's lives in the light of their perceptions of the ‘new vocational ism’ and to assess how much control they feel they have over the further education phase of the school-to-work transition. A multi-method approach involving a structured questionnaire and a series of semi-structured group interviews is used to try to discover something of the ‘lived realities’ of these young people. An important finding is that young people in a ‘depressed’ labour market appear to be at least as optimistic about finding employment, and also experience similar levels of independence and control, as a similar sample in a more ‘buoyant’ labour market. Provisional explanations for this optimism are outlined and some of the possible practical and theoretical implications arising from the data collected from these two samples are presented.
The main aims of this book are to review what is known about the causes and prevention of adult antisocial behaviour. The book aims to specify what we know, what we do not know, and what we need to know, recommending priority research that would address key questions and fill key gaps in knowledge. The main aim of this introductory chapter is to set the scene for the more detailed chapters that follow by outlining some of the key topics, issues and questions arising in the early prevention of adult antisocial behaviour. This chapter defines the territory by briefly reviewing epidemiology, development, risk and protective factors, and prevention programmes. Four types of prevention can be distinguished (Tonry and Farrington, 1995). Criminal justice prevention refers to traditional deterrence, incapacitation and rehabilitation strategies operated by law enforcement and criminal justice agencies. Situational prevention refers to interventions designed to reduce the opportunities for antisocial behaviour and to increase the risk and difficulty of committing antisocial acts. Community prevention refers to interventions designed to change the social conditions and social institutions (e.g. community norms and organisations) that influence antisocial behaviour in communities. Developmental prevention refers to interventions designed to inhibit the development of antisocial behaviour in individuals, by targeting risk and protective factors that influence human development (see Farrington, 2000a). This book concentrates on early developmental prevention programmes, including those implemented in pregnancy and infancy, parenting programmes, preschool programmes, individual skills training, and school programmes. © Cambridge University Press 2004 and Cambridge University Press, 2009.
On 1 June 2000 a new court order was implemented in England and Wales. The Parenting Order provided for the extension of state intervention (primarily through youth justice agencies) into ‘family life’. We have recently completed research with regard to youth justice parenting initiatives, and during the course of our research, our interest in, and concern with, the broader question of ‘parenting’, ‘parental responsibility’ and the ‘parenting deficit’ consolidated. This article sets out our principal concerns by locating the new statutory powers within their wider context. By tracing their historical antecedents, theoretical foundations and policy expressions we aim to critique the latest developments in state intervention. Similarly, by analysing the material circumstances of the parents who are targeted by such intervention, and reviewing the means by which children, young people and parents conceive such intervention, we argue that the new powers essentially comprise an extension of punitiveness underpinned by stigmatising and pathologising constructions of working class families.
Since the election of New Labour in 1997, young people's relationship to work and to the labour market has been the subject of intense scrutiny and policy activity. By equipping young workers with the qualifications and skills they are held to need in the knowledge economy, the government hopes to reconcile its quest for economic progress with the commitment to social justice for young people. However, as this article argues, the importance invested in this area of 'youth policy' overlays a more fundamental process of disengagement in which New Labour is presiding over the withdrawal of those traditional sources of support it has held out to the young. For this reason, the article concludes by suggesting that the importance that New Labour attaches to policy for young workers tells us more about the needs of government than it does about the needs of young people.
The article draws a distinction between family policy and moral regu lation and argues that there has been increasing emphasis upon the latter in recent public debate about family life. The analysis suggests that British social policy compares unfavourably with other European countries because it lacks an explicit family policy. The Conservative government's family strategy has revealed confusions, most noticeably in the divergence between the Green Paper Looking to the Future which advocates a move to 'no fault' divorces and the broader politi cal project of demonising lone parenthood. The article concludes by examining some evidence that undermines the view which suggests that family structures have a unique explanatory power in accounting for a rise in incivility and criminality in modern society.
After a year of frenetic activity New Labour's Crime and Disorder Act slipped quietly into the statute book on the last day before parliament's summer recess in 1998. Heralded as a radical shake up of criminal justice and youth justice, the major provisions of the Act are examined in this article and its likely impact on the treatment of young people is critically assessed. It does so by tracing how far the rhetoric of crime prevention represents a radical new departure or a continuation of the former government's commitment to penal populism. By unearthing the key foundational elements in Labour's agenda—authoritarianism, communitarianism, remoralization, managerialism—the article notes the significant presences and absences that are likely to be witnessed in youth justice in England and Wales by the turn of the century.
A theoretical perspective of individualized systems of social capital is proposed to explain the relationship between the agency exercised by socially excluded young people and the contribution made by social ‘structures’ in shaping their school-to-work transitions. An individualized system of social capital is a dynamic, social, spatially, culturally, temporally and economically embedded group, network, or constellation of social relations, that has the young person at the core of the constellation and that provides authentic opportunities for everyday learning. This perspective recognizes that such systems of social relations both support and constrain individual actions and outcomes. It identifies the potential for some control by young people over their development and change but also accepts that the extent of individual development and change is heavily dependent on the way the individualized system of social capital evolves for each individual young person, and that this in turn is conditioned by the material and symbolic resources available to these networks or constellations. Different typologies of weak, strong, changing and fluid individualized systems of social capital are explored in relation to our empirical data and a range of theoretical perspectives, including socialization, individualization and underclass theses.
Current debates about the nature of risk in late modernity suggest that changing social structures and a weakening, or increasingly global mediation of social constraints associated with the old order, have given rise to a new set of risks and opportunities. Social inequalities continue to impact upon people’s lives but from within the contingencies of individualizing processes of ‘risk society’. Whilst it is acknowledged that there are differences between the production and perception of risks, there is a need for empirical evidence examining how risks are unequally distributed. The same study can provide illustration of how the solutions to social ills are often sought at an individual rather than a collective level through personal action. Drawing upon data from a three-year project, this paper explores young people's perceptions of risk. It is argued that since young people's experiences continue to be shaped by local social dimensions of class and gender, risk behaviour should continue to be analysed within these contexts.
In this paper we look at the history of youth research and cultural studies in Britain, and consider the relationship between these two very different intellectual trajectories and traditions. We argue that the youth question is potentially at the cutting edge of interdisciplinary enquiry in the human sciences, that it has an important role to play in reconstituting the problematics of identity and modernity and that it serves to focus policy debates around a strategic nexus of social contradiction in post-colonial Britain. But we also suggest that until we transcend the narrow empiricism of most youth transition studies, and the theoreticism that continues to characterize the study of cultural texts, the youth question will continue to remain a side-show. The article concludes by outlining one possible approach that may help build bridges between youth studies and cultural studies in order to advance research beyond these limitations.
In problematizing the imagery surrounding the experience of 'homelessness' for young women, this paper is founded on the premise that the processual link between social being and social consciousness-lived experience-needs to be explored. For this sample of young women, 'feeling at home' was either a present state of pathos or a future aspiration, it was not something most associated with their pasts. By listening actively to what the young women had to say about their social identity, self-concept and psychosocial well-being, it is shown that hostel life is portrayed as a stage of transition between the structured limitations of the past and their aspirations for the future.
Taking vehicles without the owner's consent has recently been explored in the context of 'risk'. In this paper we wish to add to this invaluable insight and, especially, to the current debate, not least in this journal, on the conceptual value of youth transitions in general, and the school to work transition in particular. Through the accounts of a sample of young men involved in vehicle offending we demonstrate that, from their worldview, the school to work transition, albeit in an 'alternative' form, remains a prime heuristic device for understanding their 'self-culture', identity and status creation, and their chosen leisure activities as they confront all too prematurely the insecurities produced by late modernity. This one transitional element, however, must be appreciated as one aspect of a much broader conceptualization of 'transition' that serves to afford insight into the lived experiences of those young people.
In opposition the Labour Party flagged youth justice as the likely core of their criminal justice efforts should they be elected to government. The first 15 months of the Labour Government were a frenzy of activity in this area culminating in the passage of the UK Crime and Disorder Act. The Act represents the most radical overhaul of youth justice since the Second World War. This paper considers New Labour youth justice policy and examines its origins and the key influences on its development.
This article examines the strategies developed within and around government to achieve a homogeneous youth justice service in England and Wales. It examines the ways in which political imperatives have shaped the theories and ideas which have informed the development of the service, its administration, the goals to which professionals are required to strive and the methods they must employ. It argues that this has had a limiting effect upon both thinking about, and practice within, the service and has generated tension which may well undermine its stated goals.
This paper considers how the stated objectives of the recently launched SHAPE campaign to reform youth justice in England and Wales might be concretised, and its strategy refined, in the light of recent research evidence and the present government’s political imperatives and administrative priorities.
This short paper offers critical commentary on the provisions for dispersal of groups contained within the recent Anti-Social Behaviour Bill. The desirability of these proposals becoming legislation is questioned, both on the basis of their potential incursions into the rights of children and young people, and in light of the numerous overlapping powers that already exist in this area. Finally, the likelihood of these new measures achieving their desired effect - namely, addressing fear of crime - is queried.
This article responds to the call by cultural criminologists for a 'criminology of the skin' that attends to the embodied pleasures and emotions generated by certain forms of criminal behavior. Drawing on the 'edgework' model of voluntary risk taking and a modified version of Jurgen Habermas's Theory of Communicative Action, I theorize risk taking in criminal endeavors as an activity linked to the embodied social practices of the life-world. Conceptualized in this way, illicit risk taking can be seen to play an important role in crystallizing the 'criminal erotics' involved in some types of crime. Standing in opposition to the disembodied system imperatives of late capitalism, criminal edgework represents a form of escape and resistance to the prevailing structures of political and economic power.
Since the early 1990s, anti-social behaviour by households living in the UK social rented sector has been highlighted as a key area of policy concern. Abandoning the usual stereotyped images, this paper reveals there to be significant differences in the nature of the problem according to the gender of perpetrators. We focus attention on the experiences of women-headed households involved in anti-social behaviour and the way in which landlords and the judicial system deal with such cases. It is suggested that the genderbased differences revealed can only be adequately explained in terms of a wider analysis of gender relations. The paper illustrates the punitive approach taken by landlords in the first instance, and subsequently by the judicial system, to women-headed households who fail to control boyfriends'and/or teenage sons' behaviour.The paper concludes by questioning the effectiveness of an approach, which fails to acknowledge the gender distinct nature of the problem, or to deal with the underlying causes of the problem.
This article examines the treatment of young offenders in an inner-city area of contemporary Britain. The effect of harsher legislation on the practices adopted by agencies and practitioners is highlighted. The analysis relates to the symbolic interactionist tradition, and on the basis of the material collected, convergencies and discrepancies with such theoretical tradition are pinpointed. In a brief conclusion, while the case under investigation is said to reflect the growing punitiveness exacted on youth in general, it is also said to signal the particular British obsession with punishing children.
This article argues that the prevailing discourses of transitions and of social exclusion are no longer adequate to describe or explain the experiences of a substantial minority of young people. Reporting on a study of 800 16–19-year-olds, it is argued that an extensively diversified market in post-16 options produces instability and dislocation. Some young people are able to normalize these experiences of serial short-life engagements with courses and jobs into emergent new subjectivities, constructed around highly interdependent modes of studentship, employment and consumption. For others (the poorest students, those with special needs, some racialized groups) these subjectivities are not available.
This paper critically examines recent explanations of youth and their risk-taking. Literature in this area has traditionally been dominated by psycho-dynamic explanations of social action in which risk-taking is claimed to have linkages to biological and psychological developments in 'adolescence'. While more recent writers in the disciplines of psychology have aimed to distance themselves from deterministic positions, more recent discourses on youth risk-taking have remained grounded in a series of assumptions about the meaning of adolescence and transition that still see biology and psychology as key influences to behaviour. Alternative critical approaches exist within sociology and anthropology that provide an opportunity to develop a fuller understanding of the diverse and complex social processes that influence young people's behaviour in risk-taking. To conclude, this paper identifies gaps in our sociological understanding of youth and risk-taking, and highlights areas of further research.
European youth studies increasingly use critical modernisation theory to understand the changing social circumstances and cultural context of contemporary youth in advanced western societies. It is generally argued that the social biography of youth is taking a new form and meaning in the light of individualisation and destandardisation/destructuring processes. On the basis of data drawn from two recent studies of British and Dutch teenage girls, this paper argues that the relationships between youth and social change are more complex and fragmented than has been frequently implied. In particular, youth transitions continue to be marked by the effects of systematic social inequalities, such as gender relations, and these imply that gender-specific adult Normalbiographien remain of sociological and personal significance.
This article offers a test of labeling theory by exploring whether contact with school and justice system authorities has long-term, negative, and independent effects on an individual's labor market success. We use the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (NLSY79), a large and nationally representative sample, to examine whether experi- ences ranging from school suspension to incarceration during ages 15-23 can predict occupational status, income, and employment during ages 29-37. Unlike previous studies, we control for an exhaustive list of variables: social background, human capi- tal, prior deviant behavior, family status, and local context. Our findings generally support labelling theory. Severe forms of labeling like sentencing and incarceration have the strongest negative effects, though among females suspension or expulsion from school also has consistently negative effects. We conclude with a discussion of how labeling might reduce employment chances, with a focus on gender differences.
In some fields of policy Britain tends to follow the Americans. Will crime prove to be one of them? This chapter begins with an exploration of the sources of American influence, and an account of the disastrous course their penal policies have taken. Thereafter attention focuses on the United Kingdom. It is argued that public concern about crime must be taken seriously. Some have called for a “remoralization” of the debate—more “condemnation”, less “understanding”. But if our aim is to reduce crime, its economic and social context must first be understood; then changed. Delinquency is only one of several responses which people may make to prolonged hardship and frustration; and not necessarily the most destructive. Drawing on experience in many parts of the country, a programme of action to improve people’s safety is proposed. Starting with procedures for consulting and involving people—including those who appear to be the source of trouble—a local strategy is outlined to improve opportunities for making an honest living, to stabilize and strengthen communities, to provide better support for the victims of crime and for the most vulnerable families, and better opportunities for ex-offenders. Police and penal services have an important job to do as mobilizers and managers of a society’s responses to crime. But, in a country where only 3 per cent of offences lead to a conviction in court, these services cannot do much to prevent it.
Throughout the 1990s youth crime has comprised a major site of state policy formation. Policy and practice responses have essentially been predicated upon a particular construction of the ‘young offender’ and have been underpinned by punitive and retributive priorities. Within this context the Crime and Disorder Act 1998 provides for the most radical restructuring of the youth justice system in England and Wales for 50 years. This paper critically analyses the burgeoning punitive drift of policy and practice. By drawing upon recently completed research in Merseyside, and by situating the findings alongside a wider research literature, the discussion re-engages with the concept of the ‘child in need’. The paper considers key issues relating to children, and professional social work practice with children and families, within the ‘new’ approach to ‘youth offending’.
The paper discusses the reasons for the large amount of critical commentary that New Labour's reforms of the youth justice system have attracted. It explores the extent to which there is something ‘new’ about these reforms, suggesting that there are important differences when New Labour's approach is compared with its predecessor's. It then discusses the main lines of critical commentary on the reforms, concluding that much of it is over-abstract and insufficiently empirically informed. The paper concludes with some ambiguous evidence on what the impact of the reforms has actually been. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Recent developments in prison health care promise enhanced health benefits for prisoners and the promotion of health has become a central feature of prison health care policy. This article presents the background to these changes and considers what they are likely to mean in practice. It provides a description of the emergence of health promotion within the prison setting, locating prison-based initiatives within the context of the wider political drive towards health promotion in society at large. Finally, it raises questions about the fundamental philosophies underpinning current models of prison health care where the benevolent aims of health promotion may become extremely punitive.
This article utilises contemporary social and cultural theory in an interrogation of the ideological construction of activities nominated as social problems. Specifically the article analyses the events of computer hacking, joyriding and raving, activities which are prevalent within youth culture. These activities have been subjected to criminal sanction and regulation and therefore bought within an arena of (governmental) surveillance. This article assesses these events not within the paradigms of criminology and deviancy but as examples of an affirmative cultural politics operative through the technologies of inversion and appropriation which are in excess. These subcultural events assume the status of resistant practices not in terms of ideology but rather in terms of alternative narratives of dissensus representing possible moments of community.
Current policy and discourse concerning the governance of anti-social behaviour in the UK has emphasised the spatial concentration of disorder on particular social housing estates. Policy has sought to respond by devolving management of the processes of social control to local neighbourhoods. Local authorities, and social housing agencies in particular, are being given an increasing role within multi-agency partnerships aimed at governing local incidences of anti-social behaviour. This paper places this emerging role for social housing agencies within theories of governmentality and wider trends in urban governance and suggests that present developments may be understood through a paradigm of housing governance. Drawing on studies in Edinburgh and Glasgow, the paper examines the role of social housing agencies in the governance of anti-social behaviour. It argues that social housing agencies face a number of dilemmas in reacting to their emerging role and that such dilemmas reflect wider concerns about the new urban governance.
The Audit Commission's recent reports into youth justice have become highly influential and much cited documents, but have received little critical analysis. They have been a major influence on the youth justice strategy of the Labour government and the Youth Justice Board for England and Wales. This article raises serious questions about their methodology, assumptions, political agenda and conclusions.
related to the psychoticism personality dimension (Eysenck, 1970; Eysenck and Eysenck, 1970). Using a specially constructed personality inventory (the PI), Eysenck and Eysenck (1970) showed a group of prisoners to be clearly higher than three control groups on P and N, but not on E. Several similar studies have failed to confirm Eysenck's prediction with respect to E (Bartholomew, 1959; Field, 1959; Fitch, 1962), and this is possibly due to the effect of institutionalisation on responses to E items, especially those con cerning sociability, for studies relating delinquency to extraversion amongst schoolboys have consistently shown strong results in the predicted direction (Allsopp, 1972; Allsopp and Feldman, 1974; Gibson, 1967b; Saxby, Norris and Feldman, 1970). However, West and Farrington (1973), in discussing the " Cambridge Study in Delinquent Development ", reported that they " were not able to confirm Eysenck's theory that neurotic extraversion is related to delinquency " (p. 198). In order to provide further information on personality differences, Eysenck and Eysenck (1971 ) compared the individual item responses of the prisoners with those of the three control groups used in the above study. Most of the P items showed a marked difference in the predicted direction, and a consideration of those which failed to discriminate led to the authors suggest that this may have been due to their similarity with L items, thus causing the prisoners to provide conventional modes of response. Some of the N items differentiated well in the predicted direction whereas others, if anything, showed the criminals to score lower with respect to N. An inspection suggested that the differentiating items "are of an autonomic type, i.e. referring to direct manifestations of sympathetic arousal, or else to intro spective interpretations of such arousal in the form of worry or feelings of tenseness, being ' highly strung ', nervous, etc." (p. 53). With respect to E, an attempt was made to test the hypothesis that sociability items would discriminate less well than impulsiveness items. This was clearly upheld, the majority of the former items either not discriminating at all or doing so in the wrong direction, whereas most of the latter clearly showed prisoners to be higher on the impulsiveness aspect of E. Eysenck and Eysenck selected