10 June 2005
Ministers are using populist language to justify their hardline response to antisocial behaviour while largely overlooking measures to tackle its causes, says a major study by King's College, London.
The Home Office's 'Together' campaign, launched 18 months ago, is designed to appeal to people who see antisocial behaviour as a sign of social and moral decline, says the study, which was commissioned by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation and published on June 7.
Yet a survey of almost 1,700 people, commissioned for the study and carried out by the Office for National Statistics, shows that the general public recognise that the issue is more complex.
Two-thirds favoured preventative action, including measures to promote social inclusion, while just one in five supported the government's focus on tough action. Eleven per cent called for a combination of prevention and enforcement.
'Together' conjures up an image of 'ordinary decent people' struggling against 'a tide of loutishness', says the study. But it adds that the use of new powers, including antisocial behaviour orders, must be clearly justified. 'The factors underlying antisocial behaviour are likely to involve complex interaction between social and economic policies that have borne down hard on Britain's most disadvantaged communities.'
The report says while antisocial behaviour is an acute concern for a 'significant minority of people', it has little or no effect on the lives of almost two-thirds. 'Fuelling public concerns about social order in this way will pay off only if the tough, resolute response is fully persuasive,' it adds.
Professor Mike Hough, director of the Institute for Criminal Policy Research at King's College and one of the study's authors, said action was needed to tackle the sense of powerlessness and pessimism afflicting some communities.
'The public wants policy makers to balance tough enforcement through antisocial behaviour orders with strong, high-profile action to prevent problems,' he said.
PFjun2005
