Ancient ASBOs: behavioral bans of old.

• Author: Mangu-Ward, Katherine
• Position: Citings - Anti-social behaviour order - Brief article

ANTI-SOCIAL Behavior Orders, or ASBOs, first came to the United Kingdom in 1998. The civil orders allow judges to prohibit individuals from engaging in otherwise legal behavior, such as standing on street corners, spitting, or getting drunk. Warring neighbors often try to inflict ASBOs on each other. One man was hit with an ASBO for whistling the theme from TheAddams Family at an elderly couple. In another case, a woman was banned from engaging in noisy sex.

The BBC is now billing a 700-year-old document from the London Metropolitan Archives as an ancient ASBO--a demonstration that Tony Blair was hardly the first to inject the law into neighborly disputes...