Half of antisocial behaviour orders are breached by teenagers, who regard them as a “badge of honour” among their friends, according to a critical report published today.

Many youth workers and some judges and magistrates have serious reservations about ASBOs. They believe that they are being overused because they require a lower level of evidence than bringing a full prosecution in court.

Youth workers also said that ASBOs had little positive impact on the behaviour of young people. In addition, the study revealed concerns that breaches were not being dealt with consistently, in particular when continual violations of behaviour orders were treated as “minor transgressions”.

But residents plagued by yobbish behaviour welcome the “quick fix” that ASBOs provide, according to the study, by the Youth Justice Board, a quango. Its report is being published only hours after Tony Blair called for more involvement from communities in tackling nuisance behaviour by youngsters. Ministers have urged the public to demand action from the authorities to tackle antisocial behaviour.

However, today’s report also questions whether ASBOs tackle the underlying cause of bad behaviour or are a “sticking-plaster”. Rod Morgan, chairman of the Youth Justice Board, said: “The board is not against antisocial behaviour orders. They can — and do — work incredibly well.

“But for ASBOs to reduce the likelihood of future antisocial behaviour, they need to be used correctly. That means exhausting every preventive measure in the community first, and ensuring that youth offending teams are not excluded from issuing the orders.”

ASBOs, which allow magistrates to impose conditions on people’s behaviour, were introduced in 1999, By the end of September last year 7,356 had been imposed. Breaching an order can lead to a jail term.

Today’s report, which is based on case files and interviews, shows that 49 per cent of ASBOs given to under-18s had been breached, with the majority flouting them on more than one occasion.

The latest Home Office figures relate only to orders between June 2000 and December 2003. They show that 42 per cent of orders in that period had been breached. In spite of promising in May to issue figures for 2004 within two months, the Home Office has not published that information.

The board’s report concluded: “High levels of breach had led some sentencers to question how much impact ASBOs were having on the behaviour of individual young people.

“A considerable number of respondents alluded to the potential for the order to become ‘glamorous’ in the eyes of young people at risk of involvement in antisocial behaviour.”

One magistrate told the board: “It’s being used as a badge of honour.” Parents and carers of young people handed the orders said that they were viewed as a “diploma” and boosted a child’s “street cred” because “villains are often looked up to”. Young people given the orders ridiculed restrictions imposed on their behaviour, with many openly flouting the prohibitions, the report said.

A district judge told researchers that young people who breached their orders were often not being properly punished. “The danger is that you would increase the (prison) population enormously if we . . . enforced ASBOs fully,” the judge said.

The study, which looked at the background of 137 people given ASBOs, found that more than 90 per cent were male. The average age of offender handed the order was 16. Almost half the young people were living in a single-parent household with the overwhelming majority headed by the mother. Only 20 per cent were from homes where they lived with both birth parents. Nineteen per cent were known to have used cocaine and 11 per cent had used crack.

The research was conducted by the Policy Research Bureau and the National Association for the Care and Resettlement of Offenders. It looked at orders given to young people between January 2004 and January 2005 in ten unnamed areas of England and Wales.

Tony McNulty, the Police Minister, said: “Young people may claim that an ASBO is a ’badge of honour’ but the novelty soon wears off as they realise the restrictions it places on their behaviour and the penalties if they don’t comply.”

NEW STREET CRED

"Some of the friends are left out now because they are not on an ASBO. I think they all want one. It’s like a new street cred"
A mother with three sons on ASBOs

"Terrorising people and running them out of our area. Throwing water bombs, answering back, swearing, all that kind of thing. It’s harassment"
Joel, 13, on his behaviour

"I don’t mind not carrying lighters but I was bothered about not being able to go to school because it was in the exclusion zone"
Michael, 12

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