Responding to antisocial behaviour in New South Wales : youth conduct orders

What is Antisocial Behaviour? The legal definition of antisocial behaviour in both England and NSW is broad, constantly requiring subjective evaluation (Ramsay, 2004; Millie, 2007:612-614). The definition of behaviour, conduct and circumstances that regulatory policies endeavour to counteract is blurred, which may lead to a net deepening and a net-widening of the juvenile justice system, bringing more young people into the system and at an earlier stage, increasing rather than decreasing their involvement in the juvenile justice system. Antisocial behaviour is a deliberately vague concept (Brown, 2004). In England, the Crime and Disorder Act 1998 defined ASB as 'acting in a manner that caused or was likely to cause harassment, alarm or distress to one or more persons not of the same household' (Home Office, 1998). Concerns had been expressed that the proposed Antisocial Behaviour, Crime and Policing Bill uses an even wider, vaguer definition, utilising the phrases 'nuisance' and 'annoyance' thereby potentially bringing even more young people into the system (Monbiot, 2014). The House of Lords in the UK rejected this new definition in January 2014, returning to the test used in the ASBO legislation. Within the NSW context, antisocial behaviour has not been structured around a set definition, there is no conceptual simplicity, rather a blurring between incivilities and criminal offences. Criminology has long observed that unclear boundaries in deviancy control evade the subject of whether a law has in fact been breached (Cohen, 1985). The development of professions engaged in controlling deviancy leads to more classification systems to create new categories of deviance that then must be filled (Cohen, 1985; Brown, 2004). However, as Donoghue (2010) argues, there has been general public concern about antisocial behaviour and measures to address it have been popular with the public and should not necessarily simply be seen as attempts to extend the social control reach of the state. The mixing of incivilities and criminal offences raises fundamental questions of justice and civil liberties (see Chakrabarti & Russell, 2008) and can increase public fear and anxiety. Producing a clearer definition of antisocial behaviour would help to unravel the nature and extent of the problems and develop a workable solution. Millie et al. (2005:2) recognised two reasons why it is important to be clear and distinct in how we distinguish more serious criminal behaviour from more minor incivilities. Firstly, antisocial behaviour remedies such as YCOs can forcefully remove the liberty of those on whom they are imposed, and it is important to be clear about the limits to the use of those powers. Secondly, tackling ASB requires strategic thinking and partnership work which, in turn, demand that the agencies involved are clear about the problems they are seeking to tackle. Youth Conduct Orders in NSW Responding to behaviour from young people that is deemed troublesome but is not necessarily a breach of the criminal law is a challenge in many jurisdictions, including the UK and in New South Wales (NSW), Australia. The New South Wales government has used Youth Conduct Orders (YCOs) to respond to such behaviour and this article will discuss the application and impact of these orders and will consider some similarities and differences in how antisocial behaviour has been dealt with in England and Wales. YCOs met a political need for a response to antisocial behaviour but, in practice, have fallen into disuse. Youth Conduct Orders (YCO henceforth) were introduced by the NSW Government in 2009 as an antisocial behaviour intervention. They were initially established as a pilot project to fill a noticeable enforcement deficit at the level of localised youth crime and disorder by facilitating a shift in thinking to allow the law to respond to behaviour that had previously been considered minor. YCOs could address the increasing impact of a range of behaviours which, individually, might have seemed relatively minor but become intolerable when endured on a daily basis (Bottoms, 2006) The stated objectives of YCOs were to (Nous, 2012): * Establish a scheme to deal with young people charged with offences under the Young Offenders Act 1997 for whom the Act's diversionary scheme is not appropriate; * Address underlying causes of antisocial behaviour by such young people to promote socially acceptable behaviour; * Provide a co-ordinated multi-agency response to these young people. …