Anti-Social Behaviour
Orders and other pre-court orders
When young people first get into
trouble, behave anti-socially or commit minor offences, they can be
dealt with outside of the court system.
If children or young people are behaving
anti-socially, the police and local authority can use a variety of
pre-court orders including:
Acceptable Behaviour Contracts
An Acceptable Behaviour Contract is given when a local authority
and youth offending team (YOT) identify a young person who is
behaving anti-socially at a low level. With the young person and
their parents/carers, they agree a contract under which the young
person agrees to stop the patterns of behaviour that are causing
nuisance to the local community and undertake activities to address
their offending behaviour.
If they breach the terms of the contract, the local authority can
use this to get an Anti-Social Behaviour Order applied to the young
person.
Anti-Social Behaviour Orders
(ASBOs)
An Anti-Social Behaviour Order can be applied for by the police
and/or a local authority. The order can be used with anyone who is
10 years of age or over and is behaving in a manner that causes
distress or harassment to anyone who does not live in their own
household.
An Anti-Social Behaviour Order stops the young person from going to
particular places or doing particular things. If they do not comply
with the order, they can be
prosecuted.
Local Child Curfews
Under a Local Child Curfew, a
local authority or local police force can ban children under 16
from being in a public place during specified hours (between 9pm
and 6am) unless under the control of a responsible adult. With
children under 10, contravening a ban imposed by a curfew notice
(for instance being found outside their homes after the curfew) is
one of the conditions under which a family proceedings court could
make the child subject to a Child Safety Order.
A local authority or police force can apply to the Home Secretary
for a Local Child Curfew where a problem had been identified, for
instance, with unsupervised children or young people involved in
late night anti-social behaviour. A Local Child Curfew can last for
up to 90 days and only applies to children under 16 years of
age.
For more information on powers relating to anti-social behaviour,
see the Together
website.
Child Safety
Orders
This order only applies to children under 10 years of age. It can
be applied to a child who has committed an offence, has breached a
Child Curfew or has caused harassment, distress or alarm to
others.
Under a Child Safety Order, a social worker or officer from the
Youth Offending Team (YOT) supervises the child. If the order is
not complied with, the child can be the subject of a care
order.