What is Anti-Social Behaviour?

• It is behaviour that can cause nuisance and annoyance 
• It is likely to cause harassment, alarm or distress 
• It creates significant and persistent problems in neighbourhoods 
• It leaves communities feeling intimidated and afraid.  

Anti-social behaviour is defined in the Crime and Disorder Act 1998 as “acting in a manner that caused or is likely to cause alarm, distress or harassment to one or more persons not of the same household”. 

Examples of anti-social behaviour could include:-

• Noise nuisance 
• Criminal damage, vandalism, graffiti  
• Intimidation/harassment 
• Litter/rubbish, the fouling of public areas, fly tipping. 
• Drug or alcohol misuse and drug dealing 
• Nuisance motorcycles 
• Hate behaviour that targets members of identified groups because of their perceived differences  

This is by no means an exhaustive list; the key issue is the impact that these actions have on victims, witnesses and the community we live in. 

There is a crossover between anti-social behaviour and criminal behaviour but anti-social behaviour is perhaps more associated with public acts and behaviour that negatively affect the quality of life of our communities.

What is not Anti-Social Behaviour?

Q.  What if young people are hanging out on the street but not really doing anything? 
A.  Ask yourself, are they really doing anything wrong? If the answer is no, leave them be! Children should be allowed to play, within reason.

Q.  What if kids are playing football in the street or riding around on their bikes and I find it annoying? 
A.  The Highways Act (1980) states that "if a person plays at football or any other game on a highway to the annoyance of a user of the highway he is guilty of an offence." It should be noted that the nuisance must be to highway users not adjacent householders. In most cases these issues can be resolved by talking to your neighbours

Q.  My neighbour has a barbecue in the garden to celebrate his birthday every year.  I find the noise and the smoke very annoying. Is it classed as anti-social behaviour? 
A.  It would only be an example of anti-social behaviour if the behaviour was persistent rather than a ‘one-off’ every year. 

The important factors in determining ‘what is’ and ‘what is not’ anti-social behaviour are the level of seriousness and frequency of the behaviour. There is a balance between tolerating behaviour that we personally may not agree with and ensuring that we tackle behaviour that is anti-social.