Punitive reform and the cultural life of punishment: Moving from the ASBO to its successors

Abstract

This paper explores the process of punitive reform through a cultural theory lens. The existing literature focuses on high-end punishments of historical pedigree e.g. imprisonment or the death penalty. This paper instead takes as its focus low-end, contemporary punishments. In doing so, it provides original insights into the utility a cultural methodology can bring to understanding punitive reform in the digital age. It tests the applicability of Philip Smith's theory of the cultural life of punishment to case studies of the Anti-Social Behaviour Order (ASBO) and its replacements in England and Wales, the Criminal Behaviour Order and the Injunction. The ASBO was a punitive zeitgeist of its time becoming rooted in popular culture. However, it was ultimately abolished after attracting a predominantly negative cultural narrative. Thus far, after attracting some controversy at the legislative stage, the Criminal Behaviour Order and Injunction have received minimal scrutiny, despite being more problematic than their predecessor. This paper argues that the lower cultural impacts of the new punishments are responsible for the lack of scrutiny.

Procedural justice and process-based models: Understanding how practitioners utilise Community Protection Notices to regulate anti-social behaviour

“…Given the increasing number of local councils, issuing more notices than ever before (Manifesto Club, 2020), urgent intervention by the Home Office is necessary to improve the quality and consistency of frontline ASB work. If the statutory guidance remains unchanged, there is a real risk that CPWs and CPNs could encounter a crisis of legitimacy similar to ASBOs, which were undermined by the way they evolved in practice, high breach rates and their lack of cultural credibility (Brown, 2019). The result, where ASBOs were ‘scrapped’ and new powers created, must be avoided at all costs given the lengthy period of time taken for legislative change to occur.…”

“…This preventive-focused definition commonly translates into a wide range of nuisance behaviours such as noisy neighbours, fly-tipping and graffiti. Tools and powers to regulate ASB have been available to practitioners since the Crime and Disorder Act (1998), which included the much-maligned Anti-Social Behaviour Order (ASBO) (see Brown, 2019). However, the most recent powers from the Anti-Social Behaviour, Crime and Policing Act (2014) have received comparatively little attention, and there is much to learn about how they operate.…”

Preventive justice: Exploring the coercive power of community protection notices to tackle anti-social behaviour

“…Here they use the Anti-Social Behaviour Order (ASBO) as an example. Considered as a 'punitive zeitgeist for the period' (Brown, 2019: 2), ASBOs were a civil order handed down by the Magistrates' Court to a person over the age of 10 and could contain an unlimited number of conditions to prevent ASB. Breaching the order was a criminal offence, which could attract a custodial sentence of up to five years.…”

The Banishment of the Poor From Public Space: Promoting and Contesting Neo-Liberalisation at the Municipal Level

“…The British Government sought to empower local agencies to target incivilities and disorder in local communities through a combination of civil and criminal measures of social control including the Anti-Social Behaviour Order (ASBO) and Dispersal Orders (Burney, 2009). Building on the anti-social behaviour agenda and incorporating their localism approach (Layard, 2012), in 2014 the Conservativeled Government introduced a new range of civil and criminal remedies to enhance the ability of local agencies to govern public space (via the Anti-Social Behaviour, Crime and Policing Act 2014 Act henceforth referred to as 2014 Act) (Brown, 2019). The PSPO is the most far-reaching and troubling of these remedies.…”