The Law and (Anti-Social Behaviour) Order Campaign in Western Australia

Abstract

As part of the ‘Law and Order’ campaign in the run up to the 2008 State elections in Western Australia, the Liberal Party of WA proposed the introduction of ‘Prohibited Behaviour Orders’ to combat the alleged rapidly falling standards of behaviour and increasing feeling of insecurity in the community. These orders, which were introduced in December 2010, are civil in nature and constrain a person from any behaviour that a court considers likely to increase the chances of a person committing an offence with an anti-social element. The orders are based on a variant of the United Kingdom's ‘Anti-Social Behaviour Order’ model, which the UK Government is now planning to scrap because they are considered to be ineffective and to criminalise otherwise lawful behaviour. This article examines the problems associated with this model of crime and disorder control in the UK and the extent to which the changes made to this model in WA are sufficient to avert the problems identified.