Anti Social Behaviour and Disorder
It’s a well-used term, and most people understand it but some people dismiss it as being a crime at all.
The difference between crime and anti-social behaviour is that crime often affects only one or few people, whereas anti-social behaviour may affect many more.
An example would be a late night party.
You may be drinking and perhaps unaware of just how loud you’re being and friends may be coming and going from the location for a couple of hours, and the music may be a notch too loud, people may be urinating outside as they’re out there smoking or on the phone to someone, and maybe a bit of hi-jinx leads to a gate getting damaged, or a car bonnet, or perhaps a bottle is smashed and there’s glass everywhere...the list goes on!
The big problem with noise at night is that it travels. Very far.
And this leads to people being kept up past their normal bed time, which affects them the next day, and it may affect their mood and this may result in an arguement with their partner or children the next day. Or it may be that the young children are kept awake, which keeps the rest of the household up sometimes.
Or perhaps you own a guest house and people are kept awake and that’s a lasting memory from their holiday on their last night, and maybe they’ll choose never to stay in that accommodation again, or even visit the islands again!
Don’t forget, this is just the noise side of things. The picture around the party the next day is not pretty and the rubbish, damage, and smell could still be there very much for nearby residents to put up with the next day. People live and work nearby, visitors pass by and stay locally, and the visual impact of a broken window, broken bottle, or other petty vandalism is something that really registers with people, especially in the cold light of day.
Of course, parties are not the sole cause of disorder and anti-social behaviour and we accept that locals and visitors alike want to blow off some steam now and then, but it is the local authority and police who get the fall-out from the disgruntled community and we must act on the things that the community cite as affecting their quality of life. Noise may also eminate from licensed premises, or a vehicle that is too loud or leaks oil everywhere, or perhaps a neighbours dog is messing in your garden regularly, or maybe the couple next door argue loudly all night, or there’s DIY going on very late on a regular basis, or they’ve left rubbish in a public place and it’s stinking, or the lights from a business shine directly into your bedroom until early in the morning, the list is endless! As long as someone else is adversely affecting your quality of life, then you have a cause to get upset and we may have a solution for you by using some of the various powers that can curtail someone’s errant behaviour. Everyone’s heard of ASBO’s, and these are still very much a useful tool. But we can also issue Anti-Social Behaviour Contracts (ABC’s), look at injunctions, closure notices, Designated Public Place Orders, Court-based penalties, dispersal of groups, drink banning orders, environmental orders, juvenile specific orders, penalty notices, public order powers, seizure of property, and social landlord powers.
But quite often we find that these things can go away with a simple letter! We have an escalation process before we reach these measures, but people’s response to the initial letter of warning is usually very positive.
We use a very simple form to ‘score’ people who suffer from ASB. Below is the form we use to score victims, it's very short but gives us a good indication of the level of support you may need.
