Kathryn Farrow

Beyond ASBOs? Evaluating the outcomes of anti-social behaviour initiatives – Early findings from a case study in one English City

Abstract The Crime and Disorder Act 1998 makes responding to anti-social behaviour a strategic and operational priority for local authorities. Political and managerial assessment of performance tends to focus on the use of legal interventions, in particular the number of Anti-Social Behaviour Orders (ASBOs) obtained by an authority. This article considers how the members of a team of anti-social behaviour officers in the city of Birmingham define the outcomes of their work and how these should be assessed. It demonstrates the considerable range of social impacts that officers believe their work should generate. The implications for evaluating the teams work, which would seem to go far beyond ‘counting ASBOs’, are discussed.

Responding to anti‐social behaviour: reconciling topdown imperatives with bottom‐up emotions

This article explores understandings of and responses to anti‐social behaviour (ASB) among members of a local authority specialist ASB unit, and the perceptions and experiences of local citizens whose complaints had been dealt with by that unit. It suggests that ASB officers operate in a ‘space’ between the demands of policy makers and the needs of residents and communities. Whilst complainant satisfaction is a key indicator of performance, the way this is achieved is more varied than a simple reliance on enforcement.

Involving Service Users in Social Work Management Education: What Makes it Meaningful According to the ‘Experts’?

Course leaders have adopted a relatively cautious approach to involving service users and carers in Post-Qualifying (PQ) social work management education programmes in the UK, looking for opportunities in which it ‘makes sense’ for them to be included. Whilst there is, to a certain extent, the belief that involving service users and carers in PQ social work education is ‘a good thing’, it has proved challenging to implement. This research study sought to explore, through interviews with ‘experts’ in the field, why this process had proved so challenging. A term which emerged during the research was the importance of ‘meaningful involvement’. The research explored what ‘meaningful involvement’ might mean for managers, for academics and also for service users and carers; what it looks like and how might it take forward the understanding of and the preparation for PQ social work management education.

Anti-Social Behaviour and Civil Renewal

A clear example of the ‘new governance’ identified in chapter 1 is found in policies to address problems of crime and disorder in local areas. Whilst crime policy under New Labour is shaped in part by a continuing commitment to the punishment and incapacitation of offenders, it is also characterized by a commitment to methods of crime control in which ‘the community’ occupies a central place (Garland, 2001). Indeed, the promotion of such methods — generally grouped together under the broad heading of community safety — has been one of the government’s major policy priorities (for detailed discussion, see: Benyon and Edwards, 1999; Crawford, 1998, 2001; Hughes, 1998; Hughes and Edwards, 2002; Hughes, McLaughlin and Muncie, 2002; Matthews and Pitts, 2001). Issues of local governance are at the core of community safety policy. The Crime and Disorder Reduction Partnerships (CDRPs), established by the Crime and Disorder Act 1998 in every local authority area in England and Wales, have become a significant feature in the new governance landscape. They bring together the local authority and the police service as lead partners, along with other key agencies such as the fire service, health services, probation service, housing associations and voluntary and community sector organizations, with statutory responsibilities to respond to those problems of crime and disorder whose impact is felt most acutely in the everyday life of neighbourhoods and communities.