assignment ASB Questions students are to answer the following questions about this story in three to four sentences.

When the off-licence opened, the atmosphere of the parade of shops changed dramatically. A group of between 6 – 15 youths started hanging around outside, generally during Friday and Saturday evenings. Most of the time they were just noisy and causing a nuisance through kicking a football at the shop fronts. They were often drunk. Following complaints from some of the residents, the anti-social behavior escalated and there were some incidents of windows being broken and various offensive pictures and words being sprayed onto shop fronts. On Saturday and Sunday mornings the residents would be faced with a substantial amount of rubbish that had been left from the night before, usually pushed into the shop doorways, along with urine. On several occasions there were incidents of damage to cars which varied from twisted aerials to broken wing mirrors and scratches along the paintwork. The police were called on a regular basis but usually the youths would disappear as soon as the police car came round the corner. When the police had gone they would reappear and be even more rowdy and offensive. It got so bad that residents didn’t go out at night for fear of being set upon. When a young mother did try to confront the youths about the amount of noise they were making while her baby was trying to sleep, she was pushed. Friends and family also chose not to visit in the evenings; the residents felt as though they were prisoners in their own homes. There were occasions when the police managed to catch and arrest some of the youths and the local Police Community Support Officer got to know the names of those responsible. Three youths were given anti-social behavior orders following arrest and conviction for offences of public order, assault and criminal damage. One of those was Sean.

why do you think the teens started hanging around the parade of shops?

■ why do you think their anti-social behavior increased after the complaints from residents?

■ what aspect of their behavior do you find most ‘alarming’ or ‘distressing’? What can be seen as ‘harassment’? Why?

■ why do you think that the residents felt that they could not leave their homes in the evenings?

■ how do you think this situation can be resolved?

In class we talked about Anti-Social behavior, what it looks like, what do people do, and what are some consequences. mainly we talked about what it looked like and what is common among the youth.