Crime
and Disorder
Strategy
2002-2005
Crime and Disorder Strategy
2002-2005
The
Crime and Disorder Act 1998 required the Isle of Wight Council and Hampshire
Constabulary to work together with other statutory partners to tackle crime and
disorder on the Island. In April 1999,
a three year crime and disorder strategy was produced entitled “Community
Safety Protecting the Islands Future”.
The
strategy came to an end in March 2002 and this strategy continues on from the
original, identifying new priorities and actions to be delivered over the next
three years.
This
strategy outlines the aims of the Crime and Disorder Partnership, illustrates
some examples of best practice developed from the previous strategy and
provides some statistical information as to the current situation following an
audit on crime and disorder on the Island.
The
Crime and Disorder Partnership aims to reduce crime, disorder and the fear of
crime on the Isle of Wight and make the Island a safer place in which to live,
to work and to visit.
The
Partnership is made up of a range of organisations from the Island who meet on
an annual basis to review the work undertaken in reducing crime and disorder,
and to influence priorities for the year ahead.
This
review is undertaken during an Annual Conference and new members are encouraged
to attend the event. The Conference
will seek to identify new actions for the forthcoming year. Details of the Partnership and the
Conference are available on the Isle of Wight Crime and Disorder website (www.iowcrime-disorder.org).
The
serving High Sheriff presides as the chairperson for the Conference.
The
Partnership last met on the 22nd January 2002 and actions from the
day have been included in this strategy.
A
Strategy Group has been set up to ensure the effective delivery of the
strategy. Members of this group include
senior offices and elected members from the public, private and voluntary
sectors and include the following organisations:
§
Isle of Wight Council
§
Hampshire Constabulary
§
Hampshire Police
Authority
§
Health services on the
Island
§
Housing Partnership
§
Voluntary Cabinet
§
Probation Service
§
Isle of Wight
Partnership
§
Youth Offending Team
§
Drug Action Team
§
Domestic Violence Forum
The
Crime and Disorder Team is a multi-agency team comprising of officers from the
Isle of Wight Council, Police and the Rural Community Council. The team have responsibility for the
operational delivery of the strategy and any other additional requirements
under the Crime and Disorder Act 1998.
The
team have carried out an audit of crime and disorder on the Island over the
last three years. Data for the audit
has been provided by members of the Strategy Group and has directly informed
the priority issues for the Crime and Disorder Partnership. The key priority is to reduce recorded crime
and disorder, however, three specific areas that have also been prioritised
are:
§
Drug and alcohol misuse
§
Working with young
people to reduce crime and disorder
§
Domestic violence
Multi-agency task groups will deliver each of the above priorities and will report to the Strategy Group on a quarterly basis.
Each
task group will be responsible for implementing identified actions that
effectively deliver the priorities, with appropriate timescales and
targets. The action plans will be
reviewed annually and new actions will be identified as appropriate.
Crime figures are based on the financial year, April through to March the following year. The following crimes, except Criminal Damage and All Crime, are part of the Government’s Crime Reduction Strategy and are compared nationally.
|
ISLE OF WIGHT RECORDED CRIME FIGURES |
March 2000 |
March 2001 |
February 2002 |
|
Violence against the person |
1245 |
1262 |
1144 |
|
Sexual Offences |
99 |
77 |
89 |
|
Robbery |
29 |
26 |
20 |
|
Dwelling Burglary |
523 |
507 |
425 |
|
Vehicle Crime |
852 |
729 |
737 |
|
Criminal Damage |
2182 |
2113 |
2311 |
|
All Crime |
9148 |
8222 |
7979 |
(Figures
provided by Hampshire Constabulary)
During
the current year (2001/02) crime looks as if it has started to slightly rise
again, towards 9,000 but with targeted policing, domestic burglaries have
continued to fall. Violence against the
person should be about the same, but vehicle crime may rise by about 10%. Criminal damage, which includes vandalism,
is unfortunately, still rising and accounts for 25% of all recorded crime.
The
cost of criminal damage on the Isle of Wight also keeps rising, e.g. the cost
of repairing damage to Isle of Wight Council property (buildings) has risen
from £28,419 in 1999/2000 to an estimated £35,000 for the current year,
2001/2002 (an increase of 23%). These
costs relate specifically to buildings and their immediate curtilage excluding
parks, gardens, harbours, beach huts and other concessions.
It
is noticeable that the vast majority of vandalism occurs in or around public
conveniences, conversely, schools report little or no criminal damage. This is a matter of concern and is included
within this Strategy.
The
fear of crime is usually disproportionate to the actual risk of crime, the
lower the risk, the higher the fear.
The Crime and Disorder Partnership will strive to inform the community
regularly about the actual level of crime and how relatively safe the Island
is. A contributory factor to the fear
of crime is the built environment with narrow alleys, unnecessary footpaths
(providing access to and from properties for burglary and damage) or premises
that attract problems through design or usage.
This can be addressed at the design stage. The Crime and Disorder Team, through the Architectural Liaison
Officer, will make comments on appropriate developments to the Planning
Department for consideration.
The
vital role of tourism at the heart of the Isle of Wight economy has been
brought into sharp focus with the national events of 2001 affecting the British
countryside. It is an important
reminder of how important tourism is for the Island. The Island received an estimated 2.7 million visitors in 2000,
with tourism contributing the major slice of the Island’s wealth. The challenge for the Island is not to wait
until levels of reported crime escalate in order to justify positive action,
but to act now. Publicity is an
important area that requires joint working as different agencies/groups have
different media needs. Publicising
crime and disorder to raise the awareness of the resident’s may not be the
message that tourism would want to reflect.
A partnership approach to give the right message to the media is
paramount.
In
an Island based MORI poll in 2001, the main priorities for the Crime and
Disorder Partnership to consider were:
§
Domestic Burglary (73%)
§
Anti-Social Behaviour (71%)
§
Drugs (68%)
§
Violence against the
person (67%)
§
Criminal Damage (64%)
All
these areas are included within this Strategy.
Vehicle
crime is a national problem but is not as significant on the Island. Nationally vehicle crime accounts for 24% of
all crime, on the Island, over the last three years, it has accounted for 9.1%. This does not mean it will be ignored but
puts the problem into perspective.
However,
another area connected with motor vehicles is their abandonment. It is a growing problem nationally and the
Island is no exception with the Isle of Wight Council (Highways Department)
having a growing problem.
The
following table shows that the number has risen by:
§
76% since April 1999
for reported vehicles, and
§
28% for seized
vehicles.
|
ABANDONED VEHICLES |
1999/2000 |
2000/2001 |
2001/2002 (Est.) |
|
Reported |
635 |
761 |
1120 |
|
Seized |
252 |
221 |
322 |
There
were 177 reported incidents of violence to Isle of Wight Council staff during
2000/ 2001 with about 60% of incidents involving Social Services staff.
There
were 53 reported incidents, mainly criminal damage and graffiti, on Island Line
property, with almost 50% (25 incidents) in the Shanklin Railway Station area.
The
Prime Minister launched the Road Safety Strategy in March 2000, which set
targets to reduce the number of people killed or seriously injured by 40% by
the year 2010 and to reduce the number of children killed and seriously injured
by 50% over the same period.
In
2000 there were almost ten times as many fatal and serious injuries on rural
roads as there were on motorways:
§
189 deaths on motorways
§
1,806 deaths on rural,
non built-up roads
§
1,401 seriously injured
on motorways
§
13,511 seriously
injured on rural, non built-up roads
§
To reduce crime and the
fear of crime
§
To reduce organised and
international crime, and to combat terrorism and other threats to national
security
§
To ensure the effective
delivery of justice
§
To deliver effective
custodial and community sentences to reduce re-offending and protect the public
§
To regulate entry to
and settlement in the United Kingdom effectively in the interests of
sustainable growth and social inclusion
§
To support strong and
active communities in which people of all races and backgrounds are valued and
participate on equal terms
§
To encourage car park
providers to achieve ‘Secured Car Park’ status
§
To encourage developers
to achieve ‘Secured by Design’ standard
§
To continue the
reduction in crime
§
To tackle persistent
offenders more effectively
§
To improve detection
and conviction rates
§
To tackle anti-social
behaviour
§
To reduce the fear of crime
§
To provide support to
victims of crime
(Figures
are for the period April 2000 to March 2001)
(Based
on a population of 128,000 and 55,000 households)
An
important element in finding out how well an area is doing, is to compare with
similar areas elsewhere. The Home
Office split all the Crime and Disorder Reduction Partnerships (CDRPs) into 13
“families” for comparison purposes. The
Isle of Wight is in “Family 7” with 38 other CDRPs from Cornwall to Lancashire
and Wales to Suffolk.
|
The figures are per 1,000 population except dwelling
burglary, which is per 1,000 households |
England
& Wales |
CDRP Average |
Isle of
Wight |
Sussex |
North
Wales |
Yorkshire |
|
Violence
against the person |
11.9 |
7.9 |
9.8 |
6.9 |
7.2 |
5.6 |
|
Dwelling
Burglary |
18.3 |
11.3 |
9.3 |
7.9 |
9.2 |
9.6 |
|
Theft
from a motor vehicle |
11.9 |
8.6 |
4.2 |
8.6 |
6.4 |
7.7 |
|
Theft of
a motor vehicle |
6.4 |
3.1 |
1.5 |
2.3 |
2.1 |
2.9 |
Family 7 Sussex (Chichester
CDRP) Local to Isle of Wight
Family 7 North Wales (Conwy
CDRP) Unitary Authority
Family 7 Yorkshire (East
Riding CDRP) Unitary Authority
“Cost
of crime” refers to the full range of impacts of crime, approved where possible
in monetary terms – though this does not suggest that it is either
straightforward or always right to reduce the consequences of any crime into
purely financial terms. Costs are
incurred in anticipation of crimes occurring (such as security expenditure and
insurance administration costs), as a consequence of a crime occurring (such as
property stolen and damaged, emotional and physical impacts and health services
used), and responding to crime and tackling criminals (costs to the criminal
justice system).
The
total cost of crime to England and Wales in 1999/2000 was estimated at around
£60 billion, although this figure is still far from comprehensive, as it does
not include important costs such as the fear of crime or quality of life
impacts.
Average
costs of crime vary widely between offence categories, e.g. violence accounts
for 5% of crime against individual(s) but accounts for 53% of the cost.
Using
this Home Office approved way of costing crime, the following crimes:
§
Violence against the
person
§
Sexual offences
§
Robbery
§
Dwelling burglary
§
Theft of a motor
vehicle
§
Theft from a motor
vehicle
§
Criminal damage
cost
the Isle of Wight £29 million of which violence accounted for 83% of the costs.
Estimates have been calculated
using Home Office Research Study 217
‘The Economic and Social Costs of
Crime’.
These
figures do not include crimes against the commercial and public sector.
For
the year 1999/2000 the British Retail Consortium obtained information from the
biggest 17,000 retailers and costed the full impact of crime and crime
prevention at £2 billion.
In
a separate report they stated that small retailers suffer higher than average
crime based on their location, product range or opening hours. Nationally, small retailers saw a higher
incidence of physical violence with 67 cases per 1,000 staff, compared with a
figure for all retail of 5 per 1,000 staff.
On average, 267 out of every 1,000 staff in small/medium enterprise
retailers were threatened with violence.
Following
a review of crime committed against visiting foreign students in 1998,
Operation Columbus was instigated by the Police and Youth and Community section
of the Isle of Wight Council to reduce a relatively low but unacceptable level
of incidents. There were meetings with
the companies organising the visits, targeted police patrols, talks to the
students and outreach work by local trained staff and Finnish Youth
Workers. Crime did reduce and to ensure
the level stays low the initiative will continue.
Closed
Circuit Television (CCTV)
Public
CCTV, monitored in the centrally located Isle of Wight CCTV Control Room, now
covers Newport and Ryde Town Centres with Sandown Town Centre/Esplanade, St
Mary’s Hospital and an extension to Newport coming on stream during 2002. The Partnership has bid for the capital
costs from the Government and has been successful in attracting over
£800,000. Independent research has
shown that CCTV has reduced crime and the Control Room has been granted a
national Gold Award for the last two years to reflect its excellent work.
1. To reduce anti-social behaviour.
2. To reduce crime.
3. To design out the opportunity for
criminal behaviour.
4. To
enable communities to work together in partnership to reduce crime thereby
creating safer environments.
5. To
instigate a sustained publicity campaign.
6. To
produce an Isle of Wight CCTV Strategy on crime and disorder.
7. To
submit and discuss the implementation of a Section 17 Lighting Policy.
8. To
support and encourage rural crime and disorder initiatives.
9. To
set in place strategies, built on good practice, for improving reporting of
racist incidents.
10. To
reduce the ‘Fear of Crime’ through public reassurance and other initiatives.
11. To
promote the benefits of parenting courses and strive to ensure a minimum
standard to content and delivery.
12. To
provide training to the Local Authority and Police Authority of the crime and
disorder implications of their functions.
Targets
Based on 52,000 households and a population of 128,000.
Rate per 1,000 population, except Dwelling Burglary, which is per 1,000
households.
|
REDUCING
CRIME |
March 2000 (actual) |
March 2001 (actual) |
February
2002 (actual) |
March 2003 (target) |
March
2004 (target) |
|
Violence
against the person |
9.7 |
9.9 |
8.9 |
10.7* |
N/A |
|
Dwelling
Burglary |
10.2 |
9.3 |
8.7 |
8.4 |
N/A |
|
Vehicle
Crime |
6.6 |
5.5 |
5.8 |
5.7 |
4.6 |
|
Criminal
Damage |
N/A |
14 |
18 |
17.9 |
N/A |
|
All
Crime |
71.5 |
64.2 |
62.3 |
66.6 |
65.3 |
*The definition of violence changed to create a new baseline figure for
April 2002.
|
DETECTING
CRIME |
March 2000 (actual) |
March 2001 (actual) |
February
2002 (actual) |
March 2003 (target) |
March
2004 (target) |
|
Violence
against the person |
85% |
72% |
85.1% |
82% |
N/A |
|
Dwelling
Burglary |
16% |
19% |
21.6% |
25% |
N/A |
|
Vehicle
Crime |
18% |
22% |
15.2% |
15% |
17% |
|
Criminal
Damage |
N/A |
N/A |
17.5% |
20% |
N/A |
|
All
Crime |
39% |
35% |
37% |
40% |
N/A |
|
REDUCING
OF ROAD CASUALTIES |
December 2000 (actual) |
December
2001 (actual) |
December
2002 (target) |
December2010 (target) |
|
Killed |
7 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
|
Seriously
injured |
111 |
120 |
114 |
67 |
|
Children
(under 16) killed |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
|
Children
(under 16) seriously injured |
9 |
13 |
12 |
4 |
Drug and Alcohol Misuse
The consumption of alcohol must be addressed because it increases substantially the risks of people becoming involved in criminal and disorderly behaviour, as well as leading to underachievement at work or school, and poor health which may lead to additional problems in later life.
The
misuse of drugs significantly contributes to increased levels of crime and as
such as been included within this priority.
Under the auspices of the United Kingdom Anti-Drugs Co-ordination Unit,
an Isle of Wight Drug Action Team has been set up to reduce the dependence on
illegal drugs and it is this team that will lead the drug part of this
priority.
The
Home Office confirms that alcohol misuse contributes significantly to crime
levels, through:
§
Alcohol specific
offences; for example, being drunk and disorderly in public,
§
Offences against the
licensing laws; such as selling or serving alcohol to under age drinkers, or
§
Offences committed
under the influence of alcohol; it has been estimated that 40% of violent
crime, 78% of assaults and 88% of criminal damage cases are committed while the
offender is under the influence of alcohol.
Offenders, and victims, prior to the offence being committed often
consume alcohol, and it is inextricably linked to disorder around licensed
premises. Also, fear of alcohol related
violence or intimidation might well mean that large numbers of people avoid
town centres on weekend evenings.
The
Home Office also states that drug misuse contributes significantly to crime
levels, through:
§
18% of offenders of
violent incidents are judged to be under the influence of drugs.
§
Research on drug misuse
reported that around half young people aged 16 to 24 try drugs at some point in
their lives and that cannabis is the most widely consumed drug by all age
groups.
National
research undertaken by the Department of Health, ‘Drug Use, Smoking and
Drinking Among Young People in England and Wales in 2001’ states:
§
There were significant
differences by age; in 2001 only 6% of 11 year olds had used drugs in the last
year, while 39% of 15 year olds had done so.
§
42% of pupils had been
offered one or more drugs in the last year.
Boys (44%) were more likely to have been offered them than were girls
(39%).
§
As with use of drugs,
likelihood of having ever been offered drugs increased sharply with age,
reaching 66% among 15 year olds.
§
In 2001, cannabis was
by far the most likely drug to have been used.
From
a recent survey carried out by Public Services Year 1 Course 2000/2001 of 1,846
young people:
§
Drugs were thought to
be the third most common crime after theft and vandalism
§
35.7% admitted to have
taken an illegal substance
§
49.7% knew somebody who
dealt in illegal substances
The
aim of Arrest Referral is to use arrest as a key point at which to invite the
individual to address his or her drugs misuse, including onward referral to
appropriate treatment and/or other services.
This scheme was introduced in 2000.
Every
school on the Island now participates on a drugs education programme, which
provides information and advice on drug and alcohol misuse.
All
night clubs on the Island are now required to ensure door staff are fully
trained and registered with the Council, provide drinking water free of charge,
provide toughened glass for all pint and half-pint glasses, and install CCTV to
the satisfaction of the Council.
Objectives
1. To
promote drug education, prevention and intervention and services for young
people;
2. To
develop a comprehensive and co-ordinated Young People’s Substance Misuse Plan;
3. To
reduce the proportion of people under the age of 25 reporting use of illegal
drugs;
4. To
reduce access to all drugs amongst young people under 25;
5. To
target those involved in the illegal supply of drugs;
6. To
tackle levels of drug and alcohol related crime, disorder and nuisance;
7. To
continue the enforcement of licensing laws;
8. To
tackle under-age drinking;
9. To
tackle public drunkenness and alcohol related problems;
10. To
promote the British Institute of Innkeeping Awarding Body (BIIAB)
qualifications.
Targets
§
To reduce the
proportion of young people using heroin and cocaine by 25% by 2005;
§
To reduce levels of
repeat offending amongst drug misusing offenders by 25% by 2005;
§
To increase the
participation of problem drug misusers in drug treatment programmes by 66% by
2005;
§
To reduce access to
drugs, particularly heroin and cocaine, by 25% by 2005;
§
To increase the number
of problem drug misusers in drug treatment programmes by 15% in 2002/2003, on
2001/20012 baseline;
§
To undertake a
feasibility study of setting up an alcohol referral scheme by April 2003;
§
Provide information to
all licensed premises on the range of qualifications offered by the BIIAB.
Young
people in the context of this strategy refer to any person up to the age of
25. The vast majority of young people
are not perpetrators of any crime and disorder issues and, in fact, are more
likely to be victims than an offender.
However, there are a small percentage that is responsible for a
disproportionate amount of crime and disorder, which affects the lives of many
residents.
The
cost of public transport and entry into leisure facilities are the two main
complaints of the older age range, whilst the younger ones complain of nothing
to do and/or nowhere to go/play. The
inclusion of green areas/play areas is decidedly lacking in modern development
applications. All these issues are
important and have a direct impact on crime and disorder issues.
There
are over twenty Isle of Wight key plans/strategies that are targeted at the
thirteen to nineteen age group alone.
The definition ‘Young People’ varies amazingly between agencies and so
it is important that partnership working is encouraged to avoid duplication and
the possibility that any age group is overlooked.
To
this end, an Outline Children’s Services Plan was produced in 2001 to help
rationalise and improve the co-ordination of planning for beneficial outcomes
for Island children and their families.
The
Partnership Planning Group carried out the work and the agencies signed up to
the Plan are:
§
Social Services and
Housing (Isle of Wight Council)
§
Education, Community
Development and Life Long Learning (Isle of Wight Council)
§
Isle of Wight Primary
Care Trust
§
Isle of Wight
Healthcare NHS Trust
§
Rural Community Council
Based
on national statistics, 3% of 14-25 year olds commit 25% of the crime committed
by that age group, with the peak age of offending being 21 years for males and
16 years for females. The most common
offences committed by:
§
Young people generally
is shoplifting and handling stolen goods
§
Young men is fighting
in a public place
Compared
with other age groups, the 16-24’s are over 3 times more likely to be a victim
of violent crime or burglary.
Following
the introduction of the Crime and Disorder Act 1998, Youth Offending Teams have
been formed across England and Wales.
The Isle of Wight was one of the pilot areas and the excellent work
carried out by the team has resulted in reducing the incidents of repeat
offending.
The
table below shows the percentage of young people who have re-offended after
receiving a Final Warning or being made subject to an Order by the Court.
|
ISLE OF
WIGHT YOUTH
OFFENDING TEAM |
April
1998 |
|
March
2001 |
|
Final
Warning |
30% |
down to |
17% |
|
Reparation
Order |
65.3% |
down to |
49.2% |
|
Action
Plan Order |
73% |
down to |
62.5% |
|
Supervision
Order |
71.5% |
down to |
53% |
|
Detention
and Training Order |
50% |
down to |
32% |
Medina
Housing Association built a Foyer, in Ryde, for young people to reside and
learn in. The target residents were
young people who were homeless or leaving home, without sufficient
qualifications to find sustainable employment.
The Foyer does not provide permanent accommodation but provides
accommodation long enough to give the young people a sound base in key skills
before employment and moving into independent accommodation.
To
address the lack of youth clubs in rural villages, the Youth and Community
Department of the Isle of Wight Council purchased a vehicle and refurbished it
as a mobile youth club. The vehicle was
launched on 6th October 1999 and covers villages such as Chale,
Lake, Brook and Brighstone.
Crimebeat
is a High Sheriff Award for young people (under 25) who carry out initiatives
with a crime prevention element.
Crimebeat awards grants to help the groups get started and once a year
will hold an awards ceremony for the best initiative. The subject of the initiatives should deal with aspects contained
in this Strategy.
1. To encourage more use of local
facilities by young people;
2. To consult and involve young people in
activities to reduce crime and disorder;
3. To
try and increase the level of inclusion of young people in pre- and post- 16
education;
4. To
try and divert young people away from offending;
5. To
try and discourage anti-social behaviour by young people;
6. To
reduce the amount of offending by children who have a history of being in care
of the local authorities;
7. Reinforce
the responsibilities of parenting.
Targets
§
Maintain the downward
trend in youth (10-17 years) crime, by 5% for the year 2002/ 2003. Special attention required for the areas of
rising crime;
§
Reduce by 5% the amount
of repeat offending committed by young people by 2005;
§
The Youth Offending
Team to provide quarterly report, for the Crime and Disorder Partnership,
providing information about youth crime and youth justice services;
§
Referrals to parenting
programmes in 10% of all final warning cases;
§
One hundred young
people directly involved in Crimebeat initiatives by 2005;
§
Eighteen Youth Crime
Prevention Initiatives undertaken by 2005;
§
An Annual Survey of
young people to be carried out on crime and disorder.
Domestic
violence is the mental, physical, sexual, emotional and/or economical abuse of
a person by his/her partner, ex-partner or other family member. This includes threats of violence as well as
physical abuse and the misuse of power and control.
Violence
is always a crime, regardless of where, when or how it is committed and a
quarter of all violent crime is domestic violence. It is a crime that results in the murder of two women in Britain
every week by their current or former partner (Homicide Statistics 1998).
Domestic
violence can happen to anyone but is usually perpetrated against women and
their children by known men.
|
ISLE OF
WIGHT REFUGE |
April
2000 to March
2001 |
|
Admissions
– Women |
42 |
|
Admissions
- Children |
52 |
|
Unable
to accommodate – Women |
64 |
|
Unable
to accommodate – Children |
87 |
|
ISLE OF
WIGHT REFUGE |
Since
May 1991 |
|
The
Refuge has accommodated |
403
women |
|
The
Refuge has accommodated |
570
children |
|
The
Refuge has been unable to accommodate* |
448
women |
|
The
Refuge has been unable to accommodate* |
700
children |
* where accommodation is not
provided, this is primarily due to either space or security and the Refuge
provides assistance in funding alternative accommodation in all cases.
|
INCIDENTS
OF DOMESTIC VIOLENCE RECORDED BY THE POLICE ON THE ISLE OF WIGHT |
1998 |
1999* |
2000 |
|
Total
domestic violence incidents |
676 |
592 |
634 |
|
% of
arrests for violence |
64 |
53 |
90 |
|
% of
arrests prosecuted |
52 |
86 |
46 |
* in 1999 the Magistrates received
domestic violence awareness training.
|
HOMELESSNESS
DUE TO DOMESTIC VIOLENCE ON THE ISLE OF WIGHT |
1998 |
1999 |
2000 |
|
Accepted
as homeless by Isle of Wight Housing Department |
23 |
52 |
55 |
The
Domestic Violence Forum established professional inter-agency guidelines and
launched them in November 2001. The
guidelines covered items such as:
§
Definition of Domestic
Violence
§
Statement of Intent
§
Objectives
§
General principles of
good practice
§
Priorities and work to
be progressed
In
April 2000 courses were instigated by the probation service, with multi-agency
funding for perpetrators of domestic violence.
The perpetrators group, managed by the Stonham Housing Association, runs
a programme consisting of 30 sessions and the offenders are expected to
complete the whole course and to attend 6 monthly relapse prevention sessions.
The
survivors of domestic violence are offered support through the voluntary
Domestic Violence Support Worker within Victim Support.
1. To improve safety for abused women and
their children.
2. To
support and develop services for women and children experiencing domestic
violence and continue the Island’s inter-agency co-operation with agreed
methods and procedure for referral to and from agencies.
3. To
inform and educate the public about domestic violence.
4. To
increase the consultation and involvement of service users.
5. To
continue to support the perpetrators course.
Targets
§
Hold a development day
by September 2002, for the Domestic Violence Forum to identify skills base,
training needs and terms of reference.
§
Review and evaluate the
perpetrators course by September 2002.
§
Provide domestic
violence training to Magistrates by November 2002.
§
Develop a signposting
package for victims by December 2002.
§
Carry out an audit of
current educational programmes that link to domestic violence by December 2002.
§
Identify new
educational programmes to be developed over the subsequent 24 months by April
2003.
§
Deliver two training
sessions to raise awareness of domestic violence by October 2003.
§
To develop an Island
wide media campaign and raise awareness and encourage reporting of domestic
violence and raise awareness of domestic violence and the available support for
victims and their families.
Anti-social
behaviour can destroy lives and shatter communities. It is a widespread problem but its effects are often most
damaging in communities that are already fragile. If left unchecked it can lead to neighbourhood decline with
people moving away and tenants abandoning housing. It can seriously damage the quality of life of vulnerable people
through the fear of crime and the long-term effects of victimisation. It also incurs costs to a wide range of
people including individuals and families, schools, local authorities, social
landlords and businesses.
Although
the Isle of Wight does not suffer from anti-social behaviour to the extent that
other parts of the country do, it is an issue that does concern the community
and is a subject that will be treated as a priority in this Strategy.
An
effective means of addressing the problem, as a whole, is a three-pronged
attack:
§
Prevention – putting in place measures to create a physical and
social environment where anti-social behaviour is less likely to arise in the
first place;
§
Enforcement – making use of current powers available under the
Housing Act 1996 and the Crime and Disorder Act 1998;
§
Resettlement – breaking the cycle of repeated anti-social
behaviour and minimising perverse outcomes such as homelessness.
By
using solutions appropriate to the nature of the problem and by addressing the
problem as a whole, potential perpetrators can be discouraged and the cycle of
repeated anti-social behaviour can be broken.
The
solutions will have five key themes:
Assigning
clear responsibility
Promoting
prevention
Enforcement
Resettlement
Combating
racial harassment
For
the purposes of local authorities and the police applying for an Anti-Social
Behaviour Order (ASBO), the Crime and Disorder Act 1998, Section 1, formally
defines anti-social behaviour as acting:
“in
a manner that caused or was likely to cause harassment, alarm or distress to
one of more persons not of the same household as the defendant”.
All
applications for Anti-Social Behaviour Orders (ASBO) on the Isle of Wight are
forwarded to the Crime and Disorder Team who will consult with the ASBO
Co-ordinator prior to calling a multi-agency meeting to discuss the
application.
Magistrates,
under their civil law powers, are able to make ASBOs that specify the precise
nature of the behaviour that is to be stopped.
An Order must remain in force for a minimum of two years, but the Act
does not specify a maximum time limit, this is at the discretion of the
magistrate. A breach of an ASBO is a
criminal offence, which carries a maximum sentence of 5 years imprisonment, a
fine or both.
Public
surveys on crime and policing in the United Kingdom show that the public place
a high priority on tackling incidents described variously as anti-social
behaviour, minor disorder or ‘quality of life issues’.
The
following types of behaviour, incidents and complaints are examples of
these. Some are criminal, whilst others
are sub-criminal. They highlight the
fact that such types of behaviour do not fall into the ambit of solely one
agency. This illustrates the need for
the Isle of Wight Crime and Disorder Partnership to work constructively with
the Island communities to identify local problems of anti-social behaviour and
develop local strategies to tackle them.
This
is not a definitive list, but some examples of anti-social behaviour include:
§
Noise nuisance
§
Using and selling drugs
§
Unkempt gardens (e.g.
those which attract dumping of goods, creating ‘eyesores’)
§
Alcohol and solvent
abuse
§
Criminal behaviour
§
Prostitution
§
Verbal abuse
§
Uncontrolled pets and
animals
§
Intimidating gatherings
of young people in public places
§
Harassment (including
racist and homophobic incidents)
§
Damage to property
(including graffiti and vandalism)
§
Intimidation
§
Nuisance from vehicles
(including parking and abandonment)
§
Nuisance from business
use
§
Rubbish dumping and
misuse of communal areas
§
Riding/cycling on
footpaths
§
Aggressive begging
Fear
of crime and anti-social behaviour can adversely affect the quality of life of
certain communities. Home Office
findings from the British Crime Survey 1998 found that 8% of people indicated
that fear of crime and disorder had a substantial effect on their quality of
life, and 43% said that it had a moderate effect.
1. To
increase the use of physical measures, such as lighting, to prevent anti-social
behaviour.
2. To
build on good practice and use local media effectively to combat anti-social
behaviour.
3. To
improve mutual understanding by agencies of their roles in combating
anti-social behaviour.
4. To
develop work, in conjunction with the Youth Offending Team (YOT), with local
schools and the youth service to discourage anti-social behaviour by young
people.
5. To
work together to co-ordinate mainstream services to individuals and families
where appropriate.
6. To
encourage use of Neighbourhood Warden Schemes.
7. To
support both those suffering racial incidents and those witnessing them.
Targets
§
Produce an annual
report on progress in tackling anti-social behaviour by the summer of 2002.
§
Review ASBO information
sharing protocols before completion of this year’s annual report.
§
Co-ordinate two
multi-agency training sessions to improve mutual understanding of their roles
in combating anti-social behaviour.
§
Produce a leaflet for
Islanders on Anti-Social Behaviour Orders by March 2003.