Supporting the most at risk: Vulnerability and anti-social behaviour

Incidents involving vulnerable people often include both ASB and criminal behaviour. These cases are usually complex and drawn out, with ASB often being the starting point and escalating over time into more serious crimes. This pattern is not often recognised and so each thematic/incident, is dealt with in isolation. As we have seen repeatedly over the decades, failure to recognise this leads to a perfect storm for incidents where serious harm, suicide or murder can tragically follow.

Over the years, cuts to public services have made it much harder to protect vulnerable people and respond effectively. This reduction in resources has made delivering this vital part of community safety far more difficult than it should be.

There are many more of course.

The truth is that anyone can develop vulnerability. Often, we can become vulnerable when we experience trauma, so in the case of ASB victims, this can occur at any time as we all have different capabilities to help us cope with harm. Generally speaking, the more we experience a traumatic event, the more likely we are to develop or harbour vulnerable attributes.

People often have more than one type of vulnerability, which can make everyday life challenging—even before they face issues like crime or anti-social behaviour.

In reality, not only are they more likely to be targeted by an offender, but they are also more likely to suffer a greater impact because of their vulnerabilities. It is also a very valid point that both offender and victim may have at least one of these factors as part of their profile.

Someone without these vulnerabilities is likely to be much less affected, both in how long the impact lasts and how serious it is.

This so-called impact ripple expands outwards from the victim, perpetrator and families to the wider community and also impacts on those engaged in dealing with the cases as they occur.

The impact of detrimental experience

As mentioned above, when someone is a victim of either crime or ASB, they can experience trauma. This can go on to cause problems; emotionally, mentally and physically.

It of course follows that those with pre-existing vulnerabilities, can suffer a greater serious, lasting effects from anti-social behaviour. This grossly affects their everyday lives and makes them progressively more likely to be targeted (perpetrators targeting the vulnerable sometimes ‘enjoy’ the repeated targeting of a particular person who may react adversely towards the offender as they may not be able to simply ignore or ‘brush off’ the incidents, which can become more frequent or severe over time).

Dr. Eric Berne wrote of the bent penny effect which is rather appropriate as a comparison in these cases to demonstrate the impact of ongoing persistent targeting of vulnerable people.

In ordinary circumstances, those without pre-existing vulnerabilities, if they are targeted with ASB are much more likely to simply deal with the (hypothetically) daily incidents as a matter of fact, and report them to the police, council and so on, then carry on with their daily lives.

The impact on them, in this case is comparatively lower.

Other impacts

It’s understandable that some vulnerable victims choose not to report what’s happened to them. This can be because they fear retaliation or feel embarrassed, but it can also be due to communication difficulties or worry that they won’t be taken seriously like other victims.

This means that the vulnerable person may choose to suffer in silence rather than draw attention to themselves. Of course, this can and often does make the situation worse as the perpetrator will feel they have free rein to persist in targeting the person and often this will also become increasingly severe in its nature.

Coupled with organisational dilemmas such as a lack of cohesive working relationships with partners, communication issues and lack of resources, it is clear to see that if left unchecked, the situation could spin out of control.

Learning from the past

In my nearly 40 years of working with community challenges, whenever something has gone badly wrong and people have been harmed, an internal or public enquiry usually follows. In each and every case, the organisation involved promises to learn from the mistakes that led to the incident and assures both the enquiry team and the public that things will change to keep people safer.

However, it is abundantly clear that despite these assurances, the problems, the harm, the murders, still keep occurring and so the two questions that need asking if we are to truly break the cycle are:

Why does this keep happening?

And

What can we do as a society, as organisations, as individuals to stop it and to truly provide for a safer community for everyone?

Risk management in ASB cases

Reducing the risk = reducing the harm.

How do we incorporate risk factors in ASB case management?

To some extent, this is discussed above but the simplest and potentially most effective way of doing this is to invest in networking with our most vulnerable people, getting to know them before they encounter such issues where they are targeted. Noting their risk factors and incorporating them into the tactical policing/community safety plan.

We need stronger connections with community partners and open, ongoing communication to ensure a joined-up, focused approach. This helps improve the care and support given to those most in need—people who are more likely to use services and be at risk of becoming victims.

By doing this, we are being pro-active in our planning, we are not merely reacting to the victim’s predicament when they have already been targeted. We are attempting to be ahead of the game. This could form a geographical outlay, a map of, for example, estates and individuals who are elderly and so on.

This improved approach shifts the focus from targeting offenders to identifying areas or individuals who are more likely to become victims—ideally before anything happens. It’s a proactive way of solving problems, similar to hotspot policing.

This approach should also be used for offenders who may have vulnerabilities too. By listening to their issues, understanding how it affects them, and connecting them to the right support, we can help prevent them from causing serious harm to those who are less able to cope.