Introduction
Over the past 2 years, Derek has stayed up until 3am in his second floor flat, playing his music loudly and banging on the floors. When his neighbour asked him to stop playing music so late, Derek became aggressive – telling his neighbour to ‘f*ck off and mind your own business’. On the weekends, Derek will meet his friends and hang out at a local bench, drink alcohol and shout at passersby. So, the question here is – why? Why does Derek cause anti-social behaviour?
By understanding why an individual perpetrates anti-social behaviour, we can target the root cause and prevent chronic and escalating behaviours.
When you fall and go to the doctors with a very sore leg – the doctor won’t immediately put your leg in a cast in the hopes it will just get better. They will do diagnostics – x-rays. Only then can they choose the most effective treatment and prevent further damage to your leg. The same can apply to anti-social behaviour.
We need to understand the root cause to prevent further damage to the victim/community.
This blog will discuss the causes behind anti-social behaviour. Why does an individual perpetrate anti-social behaviour? And how does this relate to positive requirements in legislation such as the upcoming Respect Orders.
We want to emphasise
By trying to understand the root causes of anti-social behaviour, we are by no means trying to excuse or defend the actions of perpetrators. The impact that victims and communities experience is not defendable or excusable. Our vision as a charity is to improve outcomes for victims of anti-social behaviour. By understanding the psychology behind anti-social behaviour, we hope to prevent chronic cases that can last for months or even years.
If you are struggling as a victim of anti-social behaviour, please reach out to victim support services or get in touch for advice.
What do we mean by ‘anti-social behaviour’?
We first need to get on the same page regarding what we are defining as anti-social behaviour for the purpose of this blog. Anti-social behaviour is defined in legislation as acting in a manner that either causes or is likely to cause “harassment, alarm and/or distress”. We will follow this same definition, therefore anti-social behaviour in this case can include anything from chronic noise nuisance to vandalism and anti-social vehicle use.
What does the research say?
In order to understand the causes of anti-social behaviour, we need to look at the evidence. What has been discovered when investigating anti-social behaviour?
Now – we can go all the way back to basics and start with genetics for a very deep dive into the factors influencing whether someone will go on to cause anti-social behaviour. But, for the purposes of this blog – we will discuss some of the causes that can be targeted by positive requirements.
In this blog we will only cover some of the more commonly cited causes, but this list is not exhaustive. You can read about other possible causes of anti-social behaviour in literature such as The Civil Justice Court’s 2020 report on ‘Anti-Social Behaviour and The Civil Courts‘.
It’s important to note that most, if not all, of the points we will discuss can run deeper – meaning that they are often underpinned by further internal difficulties. For example, an individual with a substance misuse issue may have that dependency due to underlying trauma.
Alcohol misuse
An analysis conducted by the UK Data Service in 2022 found that almost 1 in 10 people experienced alcohol-related ASB in the year prior.
Research has shown there are multiple ways in which alcohol can influence anti-social behaviour (Young, Sweeting & West, 2008). Alcohol can cause short-term disinhibition and aggression – leading to anti-social behaviour. However, long term misuse of alcohol can subsequently damage certain areas of the brain, leading to further dysregulation and increased risk of perpetrating anti-social behaviour/social disengagement.
Another link between anti-social behaviour and alcohol misuse is that individuals with a predisposition to perpetrate anti-social behaviour are more likely to use (and misuse) alcohol than those who are not predisposed (Young, Sweeting & West, 2008).
These are two opposing theories, but the clear need for treatment remains the same.
Alcohol Research UK have previously reported on alcohol-related anti-social behaviour and the impact this has on society. They highlighted the importance of using positive requirements as a way to address these challenges.
Positive requirements are conditions imposed by a court that the defendant must do, often to their benefit as well as the community e.g. engaging with support services, attending awareness courses. Each application for a community-based civil action must show that at the least, positive requirements have been considered.
The report recommends that alcohol and drugs services be trained on the powers in the 2014 ASB, Crime and Policing Act and how they can be used in relation to alcohol related ASB. Likewise, community safety staff, police and alcohol services commissioners should ensure that alcohol services can be, and are, involved in the process leading to a criminal behaviour order at the earliest possible point. Essentially, a partnership working approach should be adopted to optimise the chance at reducing future alcohol-related anti-social behaviour.
Mental health difficulties
Individuals with mental health difficulties are more likely to be victims and/or perpetrators of anti-social behaviour.
Naturally, there are individuals who experience learning disabilities and/or difficulties that may demonstrate anti-social behaviour. For example, they may struggle to regulate their emotions, leading to noise disturbances etc for neighbours. However, these cases often become damaging to neighbours when individuals are not provided appropriate housing and/or care to meet their complex needs.
We previously spoke to a victim who had to access an ASB Case Review due to a neighbour who had complex needs which were not being met. You can read about it here.
Shelter Cymru published their ‘Reframing anti-social behaviour’ report in 2023 which demonstrated the
“Lack of consideration of the links between ASB and the alleged perpetrators mental health or other presenting support needs”
Shelter Cymru found that in 2022, of the 30 possession order cases they worked with, almost 3 in 5 (59%) of these cases involved tenants with complex need such as mental health issues or substance misuse concerns.
“A common thread was that none were receiving adequate or timely support either for themselves or members of their family.” – Shelter Cymru
Understandably, mental health-related anti-social behaviour lends itself to a wider problem – a lack of timely and sufficient mental health support across England and Wales.
Inability/unwillingness to consider the impact of behaviour
As The Civil Justice Court report states, there is a wide spectrum of anti-social behaviour which can’t be readily linked to common underlying causes (e.g. mental health issues, substance misuse etc). For example, an individual may be causing high levels of noise nuisance and does not change their behaviours despite impacting their neighbours.
The reasons for this behaviour could lead us to research that shows a link between anti-social behaviour and an impairment in self-control, genetic predispositions or even parenting style in childhood (Tuvblad & Beaver, 2013). However, just because someone might be biologically predisposed to anti-social behaviour, does not mean that they lack complete control of their behaviour.
The Civil Justice Court report states that in these cases, a positive requirement can be ordered that requires the individual to attend a victim awareness course.
So now what?
So, why is it important to understand the underlying causes of anti-social behaviour? As a practitioner, you might be thinking – “all I need to know if that ASB is taking place, and I can use powers to stop it regardless of why it happened”.
But, putting a plaster on a broken leg won’t fix the problem. By optimising our use of tools and powers, namely utilising the positive requirement component, we can take aim at the root causes of ASB and reduce risk of re-occurrence.
By understanding root causes, we can effectively choose positive requirements that are more likely to have an impact on the perpetrator and their future behaviours.
So why are positive requirements not used more often?
Unfortunately, although we can see the importance of positive requirements for preventing long term anti-social behaviour, the Civil Justice Council (2020) found that positive requirements were not being used as intended.
The Civil Justice Court found that some of the reasons agencies provided for not including positive requirements were:
- Difficulty in gaining information about the proposed respondent (so as to enable identification of suitable assistance/treatment).
- The lack of providers of drug and alcohol abuse courses/treatment.
- Lack of mental health treatment/support facilities.
- The difficulty in getting a provider of drug, alcohol abuse or mental health support services to become engaged in the provision of a course of treatment/assistance which is compulsory and/or that specifically requires the provider to report to a third party (such as a court) on a failure to comply, thereby interrupting trust and client confidentiality.
Conclusion
In the pursuit of safer communities, we must remember the importance of trauma-informed approaches. When tackling anti-social behaviour at its root cause, we will come across individuals who have mental health difficulties, substance misuse issues, and other underlying trauma – both on the side of the victim and the perpetrator.
Let’s go back to Derek – it may be that Derek suffers from depression and anxiety. His symptoms keep him awake at night and he uses alcohol as a means to try and escape his symptoms. Does this excuse his behaviour? No. But we can use this information to put in place positive requirements which will hopefully aid as access to alcohol and mental health services which Derek would not have otherwise had.
As Shelter Cymru states in their report:
“Seeing ASB as a symptom of broader support needs is integral in the pursuit of a trauma-informed approach. Anti-social behaviour may actually be the result of a person’s coping mechanism or stress response and point to a wider issue related to unmet support needs.”
