Anti-Social Behavior
Introduction of Anti-Social Behavior Unit and action plans in tackling social problem facing youth act as evident that social problems are present in the localities and in community as a whole. Law states that government should meet their obligations by being committed in taking legal actions with aim of solving social disorders which are persistent in society. This can be achieved by forming society support groups, safety initiatives, target hardening schemes, education, social awareness and involving youths in projects and counseling which tends to discourage social problems. Society and agencies should work together through interventions processes and public should report o social disorder cases. It is important to identify and put intervention strategies on place to tackle and resolve social problems. This can be done through mediation and restoration initiatives. Responding to emergency cases of social problem plays a major role in reducing same occurrences is society (Home Office, 2004). The article presents the literature review findings on anti social behaviors and policy responses made to reduce social disorders among young people in order to have just society. The main purpose of the review is to identify intervention strategies made to tackle anti social behavior which could lead to improvement of community.
Anti Social Behaviors
Violence and anti social behaviours among young people are the major public concern in many nations whether developed or developing. These are related to factors such as individual, family, and school which contribute to social problems. It is asserted that violence acts among Icelandic youth generation is associated with gender, poor parental social support, abuse of substance, psychological emotion instability and negative life experiences (Halliday-Boykins 2004).
The social problem impacts society negatively by breaching peace among individuals in neighbourhood which may extend to wider community. These influences can be noise, harassment, property destruction, crime acts, intimidation, verbal abuse, peddling of drugs, prostitution, domestic violence, substance abuse, dumping litter around residential houses and neglected properties. Effects can be furthered by denying young people the right for life, religion, and family life, freedom of expression and right to own property through torture and discrimination (South Bedfordshire 2005). Extreme cases of social deviance among youths lead to jail and corporal punishment due to crimes and juvenile delinquency (Shulruf 2008).
Most people can display anti social behaviors which can be temporal or situational and depending on individuals it can either be stable or persistent among adolescents (Moffitt 1993). Anti social behavior is a trait which starts developing in early childhood and may continue to youth life and later to adulthood (Patterson, Ramsey and Debaryshe 1990).
Policy Responses on Anti Social Behaviors
Everyone desires to live in safe and quiet environment where people live with each other peacefully. This can not be the case always since there are anti social behaviors which cause real world problems (Basingstoke and Deane). The impact of social deviance is extremely dangerous and has negative effect on individuals and community as a whole. People who engage themselves in anti social behavior put their lives, family members and wider society lives at risk.
Effective responses on tackling anti social behaviors are diverse and as a matter of fact communities have developed various responses to reduce social problems Responses are prevention, intervention and enforcement (Nacro 2003 White 2007). Individuals can help police and other agencies to tackle problems in their localities by reporting social disorders this may prevent the occurrence of same problem thus, making community safe. Evidence from victims and witnesses is important because it demonstrates the distress by displaying how it damages the community (HM Government 2010).
The fact is that accurate evaluations on interventions have been made in attempt to reduce anti social problems which proved to be effective. There is importance of making informed decisions on future intervention policies and programs. Despite the appealing initiatives, there is no strong support in evaluating interventions for effective development of social policies and programs (Rubin et al., 2006). The most effective treatment is through having thorough knowledge and understanding on social problems in order to address factors that influences anti social behaviors (Halliday-Boykins 2004). Responses made to prevent and tackle social disorders involves education and awareness, interventions, restorative justice, mentoring and therapies.
Interventions
There are extensive interventions approaches that have been put into place to be used in prevention or reduction of social deviance. The approaches includes early, coercive, developmental and situational interventions.
Early intervention
It is promising approach in early stages which prevent future youthful and adulthood social behaviors. It is useful method of tackling problem as early as possible by focusing on risks which may result to anti social behaviors (Farrington and Coid 2003). Infancy and pregnancy related problems can be alleviated by visiting antenatal and post natal clinics which reduces child being physically abused or abandoned by teenage and single mothers. The preschool programs play a vital role in impacting children intellectual ability by increasing rate of thinking and reasoning. This resulted to future education achievements which is very effective in alleviating social crimes in society (Farrington and Coid 2003).
It is crucial approach since the presence of juvenile delinquency and anti social problems among children highly predicted future social deviance. Poverty, convictions, imprisonment and single parenthood are risk factors associated with social problems on future child life. Social behaviors can be prevented by helping the family to overcome the problem they face which result to reduction of these behaviors (Rubin, Rabinovich, Hallsworth and Nason, 2006).
Safer Portsmouth partnership established Early Intervention Project which has been successful in service delivery. The program provides support and advocacy to victims of social deviance which are accessed from through health and police departments. Service provision is client based and levels of victimization have been reduced from 84 to 16 in 3 years. Project is independent in advocacy and has won international, local and national awards. It is continuing in delivery of advocacy services through innovations and creations in securing clients security (Safer Portsmouth partnership 2007-2008).
Coercive Intervention
Policy focuses on changing aspects of the situation in which crimes are occurring in order to reduce the opportunity for offences. This has been designed as restrictive measure use to deter young people from engaging in crimes. The approach has been found to be useful by local authorities and police. In dealing with the social problem and can reduce crimes. Available sources suggest that policy cannot be relied on prevention or even reduction of social problems among youth. Punishment threats on social and criminal behavior restrain the occurrence of offences. Threat can be effective on individuals who have low self control, this responds to approach positively (Rubin et al., 2006). Use of detention and imprisonment has not produce any positive effects in reducing recidivism.
Developmental Intervention
This approach is also known cognitive behavioral or therapeutic intervention. The approach addresses how thoughts, feelings and behavior are interrelated. The most effective intervention for non-institutionalized delinquency behavior was counseling of individual, interpersonal skills training, and behavioral program support which recidivism. The approach deals with rehabilitation of offenders through skills and capacity development to lead morally acceptable social life. Intervention involves education and counseling of offenders and immediate family members. Youths and children who are at risk of social deviance are targeted early by being provided education support to have positive behaviors (Rubin et al., 2006).
Situational Intervention
Situational factors are easily distinguished between an individual and group. Factors can be analyzed by considering what triggers the occurrence of social problems (White, 2007). Situational intervention revolves around the personality, social deviance and crimes are mostly dependent on opportunities available (Rubin et al., 2006). The social deviance opportunities can be decreased by shunning instantaneous close of bars, avoiding use of bottle and glasses in bars, improving street light and making sure public transport and taxis are readily available at late ours. It is asserted that street light has positive effect in reducing social crimes, this results to just society whereby there is pride, cohesion and informal social control. Street lights and clean environments have greatly contributed to general public safety, increase use of public places and citizen have become law abiders by upholding norms and values of the society. The situation in which people act defines and set individual behavior. Police, public, council and business owners significantly contribute in determining the occurrence of social deviance. The approach is very effective if other agencies work in partnership in intervention process and implementations (Rubin et al., 2006). Policy focuses on changing aspects of the situation in which crimes are occurring in order to reduce the opportunity for offence.
Family Based Intervention
Family factors predict the future occurrence of anti social problems among the youths. Social deviance is characterized by poor parental guidance, low income, divorce or separation, abusive parents and neglect. Positive family interactions and good relationship among family members are important in reducing social problems (Farrington and Coid 2003). Family Intervention Projects have been established to support families by dealing with the most challenging problems faced in families which leads to social deviance (National Centre for Social Research 2010). The support resulted positive outcomes, families who were involved with anti social behaviors experienced tremendous decrease of social deviance from 89 to 32 in 2009. The intervention work through support programs by challenging social deviance, providing parental support, supporting children education, management of risk factors, improvement of family property, stopping violence acts and improving living standards by providing knowledge and skills to parents and children to support themselves in future
This is the most effective program designed to prevent occurrence of social problems. It includes family therapy, parental training, multi systematic therapy and Oregon treatment foster care which are basically based on family. The focus of therapy is on done on familiar risks and factors that influence social problems among youths (Halliday-Boykins, 2004). The family and parental analysis made in USA, Norway and Canada asserts that this policy has great impact in reducing juvenile delinquency. It is very effective approach to be used in solving youth offences and social problems. It specifically suit individual needs while it targets risky factors that exposes youths to behavioral problems (Rubin et al., 2006). Parental training support and early childhood interventions are the most effective prevention measures on targeted population, this reduces social problems.
Education and awareness
Public awareness was established to allow young people realize their self-esteem in order for them to achieve sense of belonging. This development encouraged knowledge and understanding on importance of family, friends and society. Youths were exposed to different environments to identify issues affecting the community. This encouraged them to take responsibility and leadership roles which lead to reduction of social deviance in schools, homes and community. Recreational activities and privileges were introduced this enhanced new experiences since the opportunities provided were attractive compared to crime and anti social behaviors. Self awareness resulted to pride and self respect among youths by improving their personality, self-image and self- esteem (Shulruf 2008).
Involvement in sports and physical activities plays a major role in personality and social development which will have positive effect on personal behavior (Morris et al., 2003). The objective of the approach was to identify the effectiveness of the response policy with regard to young people behaviors, self- perception and participants satisfaction. The policy was effective since it involved active learning approaches (Shulruf 2008).
Safer Portsmouth partnership has also established Racial Awareness Services which provides information, advice, advocacy and support to victims and perpetrators of racial harassment. It is client based which deals with diverse communities in Portsmouth (Safer Portsmouth partnership 2007-2008). Education and vocational training opportunities presents individuals with interpersonal skills. The outcome was found to be positive since it helped individuals to enter labor market and the living standards have been improved through better income (Rubin et al., 2006).
Restorative Justice
It is defined as rehabilitation approach that deals with offence, whereby parties involved come together with objective of resolving the conflicts between the parties. Despite the description that victims and offenders come together in presence of mediators, victims are not necessarily involved in the process. Youth Justice and Criminal Evidence Act in UK introduced Referral orders to young people aged between 10 and 17 who were first time convicted, where restorative justice process took place by referring youths to specialized panel. The Youth Justice Board formed restorative justice schemes known as Family Group Conferencing in favor of youths. Restoration was measured with agreement that youths involved will not commit the offence again. The process is only positive when the offence is one and is still under consideration. The use of the approach is only acceptable when agreements are made by ensuring that victim and local agency provides positive environment for an offender to acknowledge hisher social deviance , recognize its negative impact on others and agree to stop social disorder by engaging himself to acceptable activities (Rubin et al., 2006). Halt Scheme was introduced to whereby offenders were given a chance to work or pay the damage to rectify their mistakes. The approach was effective in reducing recidivism, young people ceased to commit crimes. Family Group Conferencing is effective and acceptable restoration justice since youths were not taken to courts or custody. Youth and family members were involved in decision making thus, ensuring that they were accountable and responsible for the social deviance.
Conclusion
Local authorities, police, parents and social workers have powers to deal with anti social disorders so long as they have effective action plan on ground. An effective and appropriate response to anti social behaviors requires thorough and extensive evaluation of local communities and neighbourhood with careful approach on nature of problem.
Interventions should include whole family by putting into consideration each individual needs by offering range of interventions to suit particular issue such as rewarding good behaviors and provision of parental support programs. Working in partnership with other agencies offers variety of intervention programs.
Maintaining positive benefits from interventions are independent on integration of community support programs. Moreover, clear aims and outcomes of interventions should be put in place and monitored where possible so that the program remains relevant in tackling social issues among youths. Safe and emotionally stable environments are necessary in engaging youths to promote the programs aimed at achieving their designed objectives. It is a point of worth to mention that, effectiveness of interventions is most useful when the ranges of approach are accompanied by information about the benefits of the policies established to prevent or reduce social deviance.
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