Let’s have a chat about antisocial behaviour
My latest pet theory is that antisocial behaviour is the same as beauty (half the room stands up and heads for the door, only to find out I’ve already had the door locked…from the outside! Hah! Now sit back down and let me finish the introduction) by which I mean it’s in the eye of the beholder. See what I did there?
Calling out antisocial behaviour can be a popular pastime; just look at Robert Jenrick’s recent Instagram post about challenging fare dodgers on the London Underground. It was…impressive(?). But is that antisocial, or illegal? And why did he pick this particular topic? The cynic in me is he’s picking at something he hopes creates the most noise and attention on social media for short term personal political gain rather than genuinely caring about social cohesion, but I’m happy to be proven wrong (why did he mention ‘weird Turkish barbers?). I’ll come back to Robert in a bit.
Shall we start by having a think about what we mean by antisocial behaviour? Lets.
To start with we’ve got lots of laws, so if someone is breaking a law then that’s illegal, which is a higher threshold than antisocial? But I guess lots of stuff that’s considered antisocial behaviour might already be breaking a law, but maybe expectation is the perpetrator might get away with it? But then there must be other stuff that isn’t illegal, but is let’s say frowned upon? I dunno, I’m just spitting this from the top of my dome. Maybe it’s time to do some digging.
So this is pretty good from the Metropolitan Police, the legal definition is:
“Antisocial behaviour is defined as 'behaviour by a person which causes, or is likely to cause, harassment, alarm or distress to persons not of the same household as the person' (Antisocial Behaviour Act 2003 and Police Reform and Social Responsibility Act 2011).”
There’s more detail in the link above, but it appears antisocial behaviour falls into one of thirteen different types:
Vehicle abandoned
Vehicle nuisance or inappropriate use
Rowdy or inconsiderate behaviour
Rowdy or nuisance neighbours
Littering or drugs paraphernalia
Animal problems
Trespassing
Nuisance calls
Street drinking
Activity relating to sex workers or sex working
Nuisance noise
Begging
Misuse of fireworks
So that’s the legal definition, but Wikipedia goes further, including non criminal behaviours such as lying and manipulation, as well as intentional aggresion including covert and overt hostility. Cripes! So telling porkies might be considered anti social behaviour? I’ll keep that in my back pocket for future use.
OK. I reckon we should run though some fabricated examples I’ve made up, so come fly with me on a few flights of fancy.
1. Breaking things: so let’s imagine some youths breaking something, like, a plant pot. No, a garden gnome. So that’s pretty obnoxious isn’t it? Definitely illegal, and I think also falls into what we’d think of as antisocial behaviour.
2. Being threatening or intimidating: so let’s imagine some youths standing about looking intimidating. Maybe they get too close to other people (intimidating), or they’re blocking a footpath. I’m not sure they’re doing owt illegal, but sounds antisocial.
3. Using offensive language: so let’s imagine some youths using language that’s making other people feel uncomfortable. Maybe they’re shouting at other people. Maybe some of the words are swears, and maybe they’re angry. Definitely illegal, and I think also falls into what we’d think of as antisocial behaviour.
4. Making noise: so let’s imagine some youths making noise in a public space. They might be shouting at each other, or listening to music, but generally being annoying. I’m not sure it’s illegal (I guess it would be if it happened at the same place regularly) but some people would definelty think of this as antisocial.
5. Dropping litter: so let’s imagine some youths hanging about in a park (no problem) and then leaving, but when they move on they leave behind some empty cans of pop and food wrappers. Man, that’s annoying; there’s a bin right there! Illegal under the Environmental Protection Act 1990, and defo antisocial behaviour.
I’ll park it there at 5 examples (happy to add and explore a few more if you mention any in the comments). Now, a bit of extra commentary on these, and I mention this from my own personal experience as an able bodied middle aged man living on the mean streets of Worcester, which I fully appreciate may not be representative of other people’s experiences or how people might view the examples described above. I do however get out and about a fair bit, on foot and on my bike, and am always interested to have a mooch somewhere new, so in that regard one could surmise I might be witness to more antisocial behaviour than your average Joe. In Worcester.
So here’s the rub. I can’t remember the last time I saw any youths breaking things, being threatening or intimidating, or using offensive language that bothered me or anyone else in my vicinity (honestly, I’d have a word). I guess I’m a bit oblivious to human generated noise (I’ll usually go and see what’s occurring) and on the whole like a bit public space music, so this would rarely bother me (I might comment if I thought it was causing genuine upset for others). With regard to litter, there’s a lot of it about, I often pick it up and bin it (if I see a bit and there’s a bin in sight) and have been known to successfully ‘encourage’ folk to pick it up if I’ve seen them drop it (is that me being antisocial?). So given my entirely fabricated examples I don’t think there’s as much of it about as people might think.
Unless of course, what other people think of as antisocial behaviour is simply other people doing other people things that might be different to the things that the first people do. Perhaps particularly some people being less tolerant of younger people (aka children and teenagers) doing things that younger people do. Like playing. Just doing stuff they find irritating. Not antisocial, and certainly not illegal.
So that’s it. In summary, I rarely see antisocial behaviour, and if I do it’s not that bad. Bosh.
A picture of an antisocial swan
Oh, hang on, I’ve just remembered the point I was going to make. I do see loads of antisocial behaviour, every time I leave the house. I often feel intimidated and threatened, irritated by noise (it affects my sleep), frustrated by other people’s behaviour that makes me fear for my safety. I see evidence of people breaking things all over the place. And these people often get really angry, and shout at me, and swear, and even write pretty shitty things about me and people I associate with in newspaper comments and on social media. I’ve been to court on 3 separate occasions as a witness in pretty scary incidents. On reflection, the streets of Worcester are a nightmare. They are mean! Really mean!
There’s a difference though. I’m not talking about antisocial behaviour by young people, I’m talking about antisocial, dangerous and illegal behaviour by people of all ages all undertaking a common activity; driving.
So when we talk about antisocial behaviour, and include the actions of a small minority of drivers (for example speeding, using mobile phones, tailgating, aggressive driving, dangerous overtaking, close passing people on bikes, jumping red lights, pavement parking, parking at junctions, parking on double yellows, parking on zig zags, parking in bike lanes, blocking box junctions, driving over advance stop lines, noisy exhausts, and on the whole being impatient and angry), just have a quick think about where you witness the majority of antisocial behaviour. Oh, I forgot littering by drivers; you get a particularly close up view of this when travelling by bike.
If you’re like me and think we have a serious problem but are digging in the wrong place, maybe you can help encourage others to give the kids a break, and lets focus on something that is genuinely antisocial, dangerous and illegal, and see if we can make our corner of the world a little better.
What’s that? I was going to say something about Robert Jenrick? Oh yes.
In January 2020 Jenrick (at the time Secretary State for Housing) approved a £1 billion luxury housing development of 1,500 homes on Westferry Road, Isle of Dogs, as a favour to Richard Desmond, a Conservative Party donor. He approved the scheme on 14 January knowing that an approval by that date would enable Desmond to avoid having to pay a council-imposed infrastructure levy of between £30 million and £50 million.
Oh, and in April 2023 Jenrick was disqualified from driving for six months and fined £1,639 after travelling at 68 miles per hour (109 km/h) in a 40 mph (64 km/h) speed limit zone on the M1 in August 2022.
And then there’s the Wikipedia definition which references lying and manipulation.
I’ll just leave this here.