The ‘sociological phenomenon’ that is Anti-Social Behaviour: Assessing public perceptions and knowledge surrounding Anti-Social Behaviour to infer design necessities and implications for technological interventions.
Abstract
Anti-Social Behaviour (ASB) is a sociological phenomenon, due to its misunderstood nature. There is an inconsistency of defined information and presence of misinformation amongst intervention attempts. This paper explores the necessity behind ASB educational intervention development, and the profound disruptive role ASB has in community cohesion instability. Public perceptions of ASB are gathered and investigated to outline this issue.
An online study was conducted over one week, gathering participants from England and Wales through social media and word-to-mouth recruitment. 58 responses were analysed. 62.1% of participants identified as female, 27.6% identified as male, 5.2%identified as non-binary, 1.7% identified as transgender female, and the remaining 3.4%did not provide their gender. Quantitative data was statistically compared, whilst qualitative data was thematically analysed.
The study asked a series of demographic and context-specific questions. After, three hypothetical case studies were provided, requiring participants to suggest appropriate interventions pertaining to the cases. ASB definitions were provided after case study one, to see if this affected participant responses.
93.1% of respondents did not know how to report ASB, with a notable lack of updated knowledge on ASB, interventions, and reporting, and ASB was frequently confused with criminal behaviour. 89.7% felt ASB impacted daily life at least ‘a little bit.’, with 20.7%reporting ‘a lot.’ 93.1% felt their ASB knowledge had improved at least ‘a little bit’ after defining information was provided, with 27.5% reporting ‘a lot.’ The most common words used within suggestions for intervention were: ‘warning’ (56); ‘ASBO’ (30); ‘understanding’ (28); ‘support’ (23); ‘youth’ (21); ‘community’ (18); ‘criminal’ (13); ‘harmful’ (11). During thematic analysis, nine distinct themes within participant responses were identified, analysed, and discussed. Such as: ‘ASB is disruptive’, ‘ASB interventions are not personalised enough’, and ‘sympathy towards ASB engagement is biased.’ Participants applied more ASB intervention terms, such as ‘CPN’ and ‘injunctions’, within responses to case studies 2 and 3 after definitive information was provided. This infers exposure to ASB knowledge improves participant knowledge, influencing opinion. Overall, ASB misinformation and lower awareness was rife amongst the public, and that digital educational interventions have the potential to improve such issues.
An ethical intervention design model (PECBR) was created from said results. The model recommends that the design and deployment of ASB interventions should consider prevention, personalisation, empathy, education, collaboration, consideration,community, balance, and responsibility in ASB. The researcher advocates for validation of the PECBR model, further investigation into ASB misinformation and the refinement and accessibility of information and definitions to better address ASB.