Anti-social behaviour

Anti-social behaviour (ASB) is any unreasonable behaviour or action that interferes with a resident’s quiet enjoyment of their home or which adversely affects the quality of life of people within the local community.

Section 1 of the Crime and Disorder Act 1998 defines ASB as “behaviour which causes or is likely to cause harassment, alarm or distress to one or more people who are not in the same household as the perpetrator”. This definition reinforces the idea that ASB is to some extent dependant on the tolerance and perception of the person affected.

ASB can encompass a wide range of activities, from those that cause minor nuisance or irritation to major incidents of harassment, threats or actual acts of violence.

Tackling anti-social behaviour

Tackling ASB is the Warwick District Council community safety priority and one of four priorities for the South Warwickshire Community Safety Partnership. We use an early intervention approach aligned with the Government’s Respect agenda. Both Warwick District and Stratford District work to a shared protocol and in partnership with all relevant agencies to deal with ASB in South Warwickshire.

Our success in modifying behaviour at first intervention is 89% (compared to a national average of 64%). Performance figures from Warwickshire Observatory showed that there were 6,334 ASB incidents in Warwick District in the period April 2010 to March 2011. This is an increase of 256 incidents or 4.2% on the previous 12 month period (6,078) which was our best performance period. In the same period there was a small increase in criminal damage up 21 from our best performance of 1,530 in 2009/10 and down considerably from the 2006/07 figure of 2,670.

In April 2011 there was a change to the categories that the Police use for ASB. Previously there were fourteen categories but this has now reduced to three categories, these being ‘Environmental’, ‘Personal’ and ‘Nuisance’. The new categories were designed to support case management rather than an incident based approach, encourages the management of risk and emphasises problem-solving.

Unfortunately this change in categories means that incidents reported prior to April 2011 are not comparable to those recorded post April. SWCSP is using the period April 2011 to March 2012 as a baseline year for anti-social behaviour. The new code definitions are as follows:

Personal - designed to identify ASB incidents that the caller, call-handler or anyone else perceives as either deliberately targeted at an individual or group or having an impact on an individual or group rather than the
community at large.

Nuisance - those incidents where an act, condition, thing or person causes trouble, annoyance, inconvenience, offence or suffering to the local community in general rather than to individual victims.

Environmental - deals with the interface between people and places. It includes incidents where individuals and groups have an impact on their surroundings including natural, built and social environments.

A new victim-centred apparoach is being piloted by Warwickshire Police in Warwick District in 2012. The model is designed to improve support to victims of ASB through the use of a victim vulnerability matrix. All agencies working with victims would be encouraged to use the matrix to ensure consistency across the county.

What the council can do to help with anti-social behaviour

For enquiries relating to ASB you can contact us at antisocialbehaviour@warwickdc.gov.uk or on 01926 456010.
You need to know what you can expect from us if you are experiencing anti-social behaviour. Antisocial behaviour minimum standards (86kb, PDF)

With the information you provide we can take steps to tackle anti-social behaviour including:

Sending advisory letters about problems at specific locations
Sending warning letters to the individual involved (or their parents) warning them about their behaviour
Issuing Acceptable Behaviour Contracts to individuals to stop unacceptable behaviour
Issuing Parental Responsibility Contracts to parents to prevent their children’s unacceptable behaviour
Helping to secure Orders from the Court including:

Parenting Orders - to ensure that parents take responsibility for their children’s actions
Anti Social Behaviour Orders (ASBOs) to stop an individuals anti-social behaviour
Anti Social Behaviour Injunctions (ASBIs) - an injunction imposed on an individual
Criminal Anti-Social Behaviour Orders (CRASBO) - like an ASBO which relates to a specific crime

What you can do

Be responsible for your own household and ensure you do not cause problems
Look out for your neighbours
Look after your neighbourhood
Record any incidents of nuisance and report them to the appropriate agency

Information for council tenants

The Anti-Social Behaviour Act of 2003 places a requirement on local authority landlords to publish a statement of policy and a summary of procedures explaining how it deals with anti-social behaviour for council tenants.

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