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What is anti-social behaviour? An empirical study of the impact of age on interpretations

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Crime Prevention and Community Safety Aims and scope

Abstract

‘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.

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Notes

  1. The Government has proposed to repeal ASBOs and replace them with two new ‘tools’: the Criminal Behaviour Order and a Crime Prevention Injunction. See Home Office (2012b) for details.

  2. The study was conducted for a PhD, which was undertaken at the Jill Dando Institute of Crime Science, UCL, and sponsored by the Metropolitan Police in Bexley borough. At the time of the research (2006) the borough reflected the national average of England and Wales in terms of a number of demographics including age distribution and ethnic composition.

  3. Not all students were residents of the ward, but as the school was situated in the ward they were frequent users of the area so their views remained important to the research as previously stated by Welsh et al (2000).

  4. The adults were sampled using a list of all households in the ward, provided by the local council. A random sample of households were selected using a random number generator and when visited the respondent was selected using the last birthday method. The questionnaires with young people were conducted in ‘citizenship classes’. To minimise disruption, the schools were asked to select classes involving children from years 7 to 13 (aged 11–18). As the questionnaires were conducted in the summer term, years 11, 12 and 13 were on study leave and therefore unavailable. Every child in the selected classes was asked to participate, only two refused.

  5. X2(1)=95.894, P⩽0.0001, ø=0.498.

  6. X2(1)=47.233, P⩽0.0001, ø=0.351.

  7. Cycling and skateboarding on the pavement (X2(1)=126.618, P⩽0.0001, ø=0.573); dropping litter and chewing gum (X2(1)=78.343, P⩽0.0001, ø=0.451); swearing in a public place (X2(1)=63.450, P⩽0.0001, ø=0.406); nuisance noise (X2(1)=59.769, P⩽0.0001, ø=0.395); dumping rubbish or waste (X2(1)=28.110, P⩽0.0001, ø=0.270); scratching names and comments on bus windows (X2(1)=10.707, P⩽0.001, ø=0.167); spray painting on outside walls ASB (X2(1)=9.494, P⩽.005, ø=0.157); and illegal parking (X2(1)=39.918, P⩽0.0001, ø=0.322).

  8. Respectively X2(1)=29.709, P⩽0.0001, ø=−0.384; X2(1)=7.469, P⩽0.01, ø=−0.193. There were further differences within age groups, related to driving over the speed limit, smoking cannabis in one’s own home and young people hanging around in streets and parks (for adults) and (for young people) dropping litter and chewing gum, illegal parking, noise nuisance, smoking cannabis in one’s own home and swearing in a public place as ASB.

  9. x2(1)=21.053, P⩽0.001, ø=0.324

  10. x2(1)=5.574, P⩽0.05, ø=0.167

  11. X2(1)=10.878, P⩽0.001, ø=−0.168

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  1. Institute of Criminology, University of Cambridge, Sidgwick Avenue, Cambridge, CB3 9DA, UK

    Susie Hulley

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Hulley, S. What is anti-social behaviour? An empirical study of the impact of age on interpretations. Crime Prev Community Saf 16, 20–37 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1057/cpcs.2013.15

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