Anti Social Behaviour

I was one of the first private investigators in the UK to go undercover recording Anti Social Behaviour from kids breaking windows to drug dealing and organised crime.

Last week I was invited to take part in the BBC's coverage of ASBO's (Anti-social Behaviour Orders). Peter Wilson, BBC Midlands Today Home Affairs Correspondent arranged a live interview from a boxing club in Stafford. Typically, the programme ran out of time and my contribution lasted all of 20 seconds. I said nothing! What I wanted to say was that in all the years I have been involved in this type of work both as a PI and social worker I never found any teenager who became ASBO material overnight. There was always a long history. Most cam from dysfunctional families, often from single parents who were struggling themselves, or had been subjected to years of domestic violence. It was obvious virtually from birth that these young people were going to be ASBO fodder. So what exactly does an ASBO do. Well, it gets votes for Government. They put the ASBO up as their demonstration that they are 'dealing' with the problem. They definitely are not! If they were they would have put in appropriate resources at the very first signs of family dysfunction. That is where Anti-Social Behaviour should be tackled. Giving a kid an 'ASBO badge of honour' and expecting that this will have a beneficial effect on behaviour is absolute nonsense. These families have been known to the authorities and professionals for years. They deserved better, These kids were not born with ASBO in their make up they were schooled in it. Many should have been removed from the families. I've spoken to dozens of social workers who have told me that they wanted to removed children who easily met the criteria but were told by their 'masters' not to. Either to keep up the pretence of keeping the numbers of accommodated children low, or saving money. I honestly believe that some of the young people subject to ASBO should sue the government for failing them by not providing them with decent 'pro-active' services for goodness knows how many years.