3 July 2023

ASB and the Community Trigger

Rebecca Bryant OBE

Chief Executive, ASB Resolve

ANTI-SOCIAL behaviour devastates the lives of victims, dislocates community relationships and can become the gateway to more serious crime. Almost one in five people who shared their experiences in a recent survey said they had been forced to consider moving home because of the impact ASB was having on them. One in 10 had actually moved to escape.

Most of us know that moving home – even in the absence of such distressing circumstances – is one of the top five high-stress life events. So it’s clearly wrong to imagine that relentless abuse, intimidation or other types of unacceptable behaviour that stop short of physical assault are low-level crimes and no big deal.

Yet people caught up in this pernicious type of social conflict often struggle to know what to do or where to find help. A staggering 51% of ASB victims and witnesses told our researchers that they had not reported what had happened because they ‘didn’t think anything would be done’; 15% said they did not know how to report ASB or who to report it to.

At Resolve, the community safety charity, we offer training, support, guidance and the sharing of best practice for organisations – such as social landlords – who want to keep their customers safe and act quickly and effectively to challenge and halt ASB.

And each year, we run an awareness campaign to get key information to those who need it. This year, in ASB Awareness Week (3–9 July 2023), we aim to make sure everyone knows what their rights are when they find themselves caught up in the misery that ripples out from anti-social behaviour.

The ASB Case Review will be our core focus. It is a proven, powerful tool for victims, and yet only one in 20 people know about it. The first stop should be local police, the local council and – where a landlord may have influence or powers – the local housing providers. But when cases slip through the net and victims continue to suffer, they can turn to this process which was created by the ASB Crime and Policing Act 2014.  Also known as ‘the community trigger’, it gives victims a voice and a way of asking all the partner agencies in a community to look again at their concerns and work together to find a solution that works.

 We need to bust the myth that young people are the main perpetrators of anti-social behaviour.

An annual report from the Victims’ Commissioner said this about the ASB Case Review: “It empowers a victim to bring agencies together to commit to purposeful action to bring an end to repeat ASB. It can represent the best hope for victims to escape their nightmare. But it remains poorly promoted and underutilised.” 

But we also need to bust the myth that young people are the main perpetrators of ASB. In fact, they are often the silent victims of ASB, and a questions we need to ask ourselves is whether they too feel unsafe in their communities and whether this is what makes them prefer, for instance, hanging around in a larger group. So one of our goals for this year’s awareness week is to improve public understanding of what ASB really is, and at the same time help young people to find places they can go to chill out, have fun, learn skills and be themselves – and where they will not be perceived as a ‘problem’.

There will be lots of opportunities to get involved, to share best practice and to learn from other practitioners. Each day of the campaign week has a specific focus:

  • Monday – ASB Case Review – The Relaunch
  • Tuesday – Victims’ Day 
  • Wednesday – The Big ASB Conversation
  • Thursday – ASB Heroes Day
  • Friday – Young People’s Day
  • Saturday – ASB and Health
  • Sunday – Community Action Day

If you or your group want to actively support the week’s activities, please take a look at our Take Action webpages.

I cannot stress this enough: this is not a low-level or low priority issue, and our communities need all the help they can get to stand up to anti-social behaviour and stop it ruining lives and destroying communities. Challenging ASB in all its forms must be a priority because people everywhere have a right to feel safe in their homes and neighbourhoods.

And this is why it is vital to develop partnership approaches that involve every relevant agency – not just the police, but also councils, charities like Victim Support, community groups, sports and youth clubs and landlords – to create a united community front that makes it crystal clear this kind of behaviour will not be tolerated and will always be challenged.

Rebecca Bryant OBE, Chief Executive, ASB Resolve

Rebecca Bryant OBE joined Resolve in October 2018 as Chief Executive. Previously Head of Crime and Disorder at Manchester City Council, she has more than 15 years’ experience of community safety work and tackling anti-social behaviour.

Further help with ASB in England is offered by a range of organisations including:

  • ASB Help which has drafted a Pledge that asks all agencies to examine their internal anti-social behaviour case review policies and procedures;
  • Resolve, which runs ASB Awareness Week (3-9 July 2023);
  • Victim Support;
  • Local Government Association;
  • The Knowledge Hub run by the National Police Chief Council, the hub gathers together antisocial behaviour best practice, case studies and information that all police forces can access.
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