What is an ASBO

A subjective definition of anti-social behavior permit you to cast your net wide and include anything you find personally disagreeable; the legal definition is also widely inclusive. To quote (trích dẫn, nêu ra) the Crime and Disorder Act, it is behavior which 'causes or is likely to cause harassment (sự quấy rầy, quấy rối), alarm or distress (nỗi buồn, nỗi đau buồn) to one of more people who are not in the same household as the perpetrator (thủ phạm, kẻ gây ra)'. This includes among many other things, foul (hôi thối, bẩn thỉu) and abusive (lăng mạ, sỉ nhục) language, threatening behavior, shouting, disorderly conduct, vandalism (tính chất dã man, tính tàn bạo), intimidation (sự hăm dọa, sự đe dọa), behavior as the result of drug or alcohol misuse (lạm dụng), graffiti and noise which is excessive, particularly at night.

The idea is that ASBO are sanctions (luật pháp, sự thừa nhận) designed to deal with issues that affect  everyone in the community and as such are civil (thuộc công dân) sanctions, not criminal ones, and need the cooperation of the community to be effective. For example, a private individual cannot apply for an ASBO; he or she must make a complaint to the police or local authority, who will then work together to gather more information and build up evidence. This involves (gồm, bao gồm, làm cho dính líu) getting witnesses (nhân chứng), among whom will no doubt be neighbours and acquaintances (sự hiểu biết, sự quen biết), to make statements to the authorities. When the authorities are satisfied that they have enough evidence. the local council (hội đồng) applies to the magistrates court (tòa án) to have an ASBO imposed (đánh thuế, bắt, chịu, gây ấn tượng mạnh)

We still haven't decided what constitutes anti-social behaviour. It does not have to be physical violence, of course, but is far easier to identify and deal with if it is. What about threatening behaviour? We are not talking here about direct threats such as: "if you come round here again, I will beat you up", but situations perceived as threatening. Let's say a pensioner or a person of timid (rụt rè, nhút nhát, sợ hãi) disposition is on their way home and they run into a group of young people who are shouting, swearing (chửi thề) and kicking a ball about and who happen to make a few unkind remarks as the person passes. Let's say the person is alarmed or feels threatened by the situation. Does it merit getting the ASBO process going.