ASBOs are a Badge of Honour

8.05.00pm UTC (GMT +0000) Fri 3rd Nov 2006

Anti-social behaviour orders (ASBOs) have become a "badge of honour" among young people, says an official study. Many tackling youth offending doubted their effectiveness and some teenagers saw them as glamorous, said research for the Youth Justice Board. The year-long study in England and Wales said half of the ASBOs issued to young people were broken.

Commenting on the report, City Centre Councillor Marc Ramsbottom said:

"This report makes it clear that Tony Blair's twin-track approach of demonising young people and carpeting the country with ASBOs has reached its limit. ASBOs cannot be effective if they are merely seen as a badge of honour. All the available evidence shows we need to engage, not shut out, young people who behave badly if we want to prevent them from becoming the criminals of the future."

He also sharply criticised Manchester City Council's policy of obtaining more ASBOs against young people than any other local authority in Britain.

"This report shows that Manchester's policy is misguided. Labour's Town Hall bosses seem proud of their record on ASBOs, when they should be ashamed. It is a sign of failure not a sign of success".

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