Plans to introduce anti-social behaviour orders (ASBOs) have been described by an expert in youth justice as appalling and inconsistent with human rights by the Irish Youth Justice Allaince.
Ursula Kilkelly, senior law lecturer at University College Cork, said the impact of ASBOs in Britain had been to criminalise non-offending behaviour and to hugely increase the number of young people in custody.
Minister for Justice Michael McDowell said yesterday he planned to introduce ASBOs later in the year as a means of dealing with antisocial behaviour. He said they had worked well in Britain.
ASBOs are orders which can be applied for by a local authority or the police against a young person (over 10 years of age) for alleged antisocial behaviour. The young person can be summoned before a court on a civil rather than a criminal basis and an ASBO made against them.
If the ASBO is breached the young person may then be arrested and the matter becomes a criminal one.
According to the Youth Justice Board in Britain, approximately one-third of ASBOs are breached and one-half of those who breach them end up in custody.
Ms Kilkelly said the number of young people in custody in Britain had increased by 10 per cent since January.
"And that is being totally attributed to ASBOs," she said.
The definition of what was antisocial behaviour was very broad. Among the things it could mean were leaning on a wall drinking, drawing graffiti and behaving in an intimidating manner.
"These orders lead to the criminalisation of non-offending behaviour," Ms Kilkelly said.
They were typically used against young people in deprived areas where there were few facilities.
The fact that the young person could be summoned to a court on a civil basis meant that hearsay evidence could be used, she said.
The Irish Youth Justice Alliance said: "No case has been made that antisocial behaviour has reached such a scale in Ireland to justify such a draconian response to non-criminal behaviour."
The alliance said ASBOs were inconsistent with the European Convention on Human Rights.
"They involve the imposition of penal sanctions for the breach of an order made in civil proceedings. ASBO conditions involve a disproportionate interference with personal and private rights and civil liberties."
The alliance said they were contrary to the Convention of the Rights of the Child.
The group also said ASBOs posed significant challenges to young people who were already marginalised and disadvantaged.
