united-kingdom criminal-law police
Is antisocial behaviour a &quot;crime&quot;?
<p>It seems almost to be its own entity, almost like contempt of court in being neither criminal nor civil, as well as analogous to the process of being bound over for a breach of the peace.</p>
<p>For example it seems that one only has to give one's name and details if one is either reasonably suspected of an &quot;offence,&quot; <em>or</em> of engaging in or having engaged in antisocial behaviour.</p>

<p>Not <em>exactly</em>, some actions that fall under &quot;antisocial behaviour&quot; <strong>are</strong> crimes in of themselves and they can be prosecuted in the normal manner (Of course where someone is prosecuted for those they're prosecuted for the specific crime not &quot;antisocial behaviour&quot;)</p>
<p>This doesn't mean however that doing anything that's not explicitly illegal leaves the Police powerless. In the <a href="https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2014/12/part/1/crossheading/injunctions" rel="noreferrer">Anti-social Behaviour, Crime and Policing Act 2014</a> there's a pretty broad definition of the term &quot;antisocial behaviour&quot;:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>(a)conduct that has caused, or is likely to cause, harassment, alarm or distress to any person,</p>
<p>(b)conduct capable of causing nuisance or annoyance to a person in relation to that person's occupation of residential premises, or</p>
<p>(c)conduct capable of causing housing-related nuisance or annoyance to any person.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>A constable can issue a Community Protection Notice (CPN) or the Police and select other organisations the option to apply for a civil injunction aimed at preventing the perpetrator(s) from continuing, the injunctions are ordered by Magistrates sitting in a civil capacity and the standard of proof is the civil one - i.e. &quot;balance of probabilities&quot; not &quot;reasonable doubt&quot;. Violating a CPN can lead to a fine of between £100 and £2500 while violating such an injunction is considered Contempt of Court and while that still isn't a criminal offence can still see the guilty party land in jail for <a href="https://www.gov.uk/civil-injunctions-criminal-behaviour-orders" rel="noreferrer">up to 2 years</a>.</p>

<p>Antisocial behaviour refers to a variety of nuisance and criminal behavior. This includes noisy neighbours, vandalism, public drunkeness, fly tipping and street drug dealing.</p>
<p>The legal definition depends on where the behaviour occurs and relies on the impact of the behaviour more than the details of the behaviour:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>in a housing context it is behaviour that causes or is likely to cause nuisance or annoyance;</p>
</li>
<li><p>in public spaces it is behaviour that causes or is likely to cause harassment, alarm or distress.</p>
</li>
</ul>
<p>Depending on the circumstances it could be behaviour that engages civil and criminal law. For example, graffiti, fly-tipping and drug-dealing are criminal offences. However, sometimes it might be preferable to use civil or informal remedies before criminal law.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2014/12/contents" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Anti-social Behaviour, Crime and Policing Act 2014</a> provides for powers to prevent and punish antisocial behaviour. These include injunctions and civil orders, the breach of which may be a contempt of court or criminal offence in itself.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://researchbriefings.files.parliament.uk/documents/CBP-7270/CBP-7270.pdf" rel="nofollow noreferrer">House of Commons Library Briefing Paper, Tackling anti-social behaviour</a>, seems a comprehensive review of how antisocial behaviour is defined, who is responsible for tackling it, the legislation and the use of the powers.</p>
