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Book Review: Rougher Justice: Anti-social Behaviour and Young People

Document Cited authorities 3 Cited in Related
Vincent
DOI10.1177/1473225406069500
Date01 December 2006
AuthorIan Paylor
Published date01 December 2006
Subject MatterArticles
text j:text 24-10-2006 p:64 c:0
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Youth Justice 6(3)
The repeated failure to learn from experience and the apparent ineffectiveness of
successive and well-intentioned policy and practice initiatives to prevent child deaths in
custody should be of serious concern to policy makers and practitioners alike.
Hopefully this book, by highlighting these shortcomings and setting out a range of
policy and practice recommendations (including the abolition of the use of penal
custody for children and a comprehensive review of the context and circumstances of
child deaths in custody) may encourage a more co-ordinated approach to the care of
young people in custody. Ultimately, however, the key challenge rests in convincing the
courts that detention in secure facilities is unlikely to be effective but almost certain to
inflict further harm upon already vulnerable and damaged young people.
P. Squires and D. E. Stephen, Rougher Justice: Anti-social Behaviour and Young
People, Willan Publishing, Cullompton, 2005, £18.99 Pb, ISBN 1–84292–111–1.
Reviewed by: Dr Ian Paylor, Department of Applied Social Science, Lancaster
University, UK.
DOI: 10.1177/1473225406069500
Squires and Stephen’s book is certainly a timely (and welcome) addition to the limited
literature on the concept of anti-social behaviour, its publication coinciding as it does
with the New Labour government’s launch of the ‘Respect Task Force’. The book
comprises a critical evaluation of the increasing preoccupation with anti-social
behaviour. Drawing on their own research they investigate the origins of contemporary
discourses surrounding the ongoing electoral preoccupation with the behaviour of
young people and conclude that the new mechanisms introduced to deal with anti-social
behaviour, in particular the anti-social behaviour order (ASBO), reflect what they
describe as a new strategy of ‘precautionary injustice’ in crime and disorder
management.
The ASBO is a civil order with an open-ended power to impose prohibitions on
individuals who are accused of...

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