ASBOs are one of the best known crime control methods in the UK – the problem is they don’t exist anymore, they’ve been replaced by Public Space Protection Orders and Criminal Behaviour Orders.
Public Space Protection Orders
Public Space Protection Orders – are a geographically defined version of ASBOs that could severely restrict people’s freedoms in urban space
Examples of how they are being used include:
- Dover District Council created a PSPO requiring that dogs be kept on leads under threat of criminal prosecution.
- Bassetlaw District Council has created a PSPO that prohibits “under 16 year olds … gathering in groups of three or more”.
Criminal Behaviour Orders
The criminal behaviour order (among other things) replaced ASBOs in 2014 – these still require a person to abstain from antisocial behaviour but also stipulate that the person receiving the order undergo some kind course of corrective treatment (such as an anger management course). The order will also specify who is responsible for making the person undergo the correct treatment, and this effectively means that this strategy of crime control overlaps with the more left-realist focus on intervention and community empowerment.
Example (taken from the above web site)
An example given by the Home Office (in “Putting Victims First”) seeks to illustrate how the Criminal Behaviour Order will enable agencies to deal more effectively with anti-social behaviour:
A young person convicted of criminal damage after having broken the window of an elderly person’s house following an ongoing campaign of harassment. Under the current system, they could be prevented from going near their victim’s house, but under the new system, the same order could also require them to make good the damage to the victim’s window and engage with a mentoring programme to address the reasons why they were harassing the victim.
