Crackdown on Antisocial Behaviour Launched After Rise in Incidents
Campaign designed to combat lack of reporting around antisocial behaviour incidents.
Thames Valley Police (TVP) and Milton Keynes College have launched a campaign to empower witnesses and victims of antisocial behaviour (ASB) to speak out and report incidents.
According to UK Crime statistics from December 2023 - November 2024, 18,958 cases of ASB were reported to Thames Valley Police, an increase of 5.6% from the previous year.
A national report into antisocial behaviour in 2024, published by Resolve UK, found that there were likely more than five million incidents of ASB nationwide in 2023.
YouGov data continually shows that more than half of victims or witnesses to all types of ASB do not report them. In the last three years, only 26 percent of victims and witnesses reported an ASB incident to the police.
This lack of reporting is central to the new awareness campaign as the police want to encourage more people to come forward with reports of ASB.
Head of Thames Valley Police’s Community Policing Command, Superintendent John Batty, said: “Antisocial behaviour can take many forms, from noise nuisance and graffiti to neighbour disputes and drug dealing. It can be a real blight on people’s lives.
“The police are not always the agency with the right powers to tackle every ASB issue, for instance local authorities have the powers to deal with noise nuisance.
“However, it is important that agencies work in partnership, to identify and tackle the root causes of ASB.
“In order to do that effectively, we need people who are affected by ASB to report it to us.”
ASB is not always categorised as a crime and often takes a multi-agency response. It can also occur during an incident which involves another crime type.
It can fall into three different category areas: Personal ASB which targets a specific person or group, nuisance ASB which causes trouble or disturbance to a community and environmental ASB where a person’s actions affect the wider environment.
A spokesperson from Victim Support, a charity that provides specialist support to victims and witnesses of crime, said: ‘Antisocial behaviour can destroy people’s sense of safety and security in their own home. It can lead to victims’ having to change their behaviours – for example, taking different routes home or altering their routine to avoid people. We have even supported people who have had to move house because of it.’
When asked about why ASB is so underreported, Victim Support stated: ‘It can be very difficult for victims to know where to go to report antisocial behaviour. Time and again victims fall through the gaps when they try to do something about it – they’re passed from pillar to post, between landlords, the council and police, with no one taking action.
This is why it is so important that support is available for people, who often feel like they have exhausted all options and have nowhere left to turn.’
Towards the end of last year, Thames Valley Police visited graphic design students from Milton Keynes College to talk to them about ASB and the effect this can have on communities.
The students were given the opportunity to design adverts to support the campaign and encourage reporting of any instances of antisocial behaviour that they see.
The winning design was by Milton Keynes College student Chiamaka Ahaneku.
If you experience or witness ASB, report it to Thames Valley Police here. Or get in touch with Victim Support via their website.