Anti-Social Behaviour in Britain: Victorian and Contemporary Perspectives

Anti-social behaviour is a key issue in the social and political life of Britain in the twenty-first century, as were respectability and immorality in the Victorian era. Written by expert sociologists, historians, criminologists and political scientists, this interdisciplinary collection examines anti-social behaviour from a range of historical and contemporary perspectives. The volume compares two essential themes, firstly the forms of anti-social behaviour and secondly the methods employed by governments to repress and control anti-social behaviour. Compelling parallels emerge through the interrelated chapters, which are divided into three main areas: the urban environment and public spaces, the vulnerable and the marginalised and recreation and leisure. This comprehensive collection is the first to examine anti-social behaviour from such an inclusive and wide-ranging position. It establishes clear parallels between the two periods regarding types of ASB and how they have been dealt with by successive governments, arguing that anti-social behaviour and political responses to it are by no means new phenomena.

Table of Contents:
Introduction PART I: ANTI-SOCIAL BEHAVIOUR, THE URBAN ENVIRONMENT AND PUBLIC SPACES 1. A Less than Polite People? Incivility, Ruffianism and Anti-Social Behaviour in Urban England, 1830-1900; Neil Davie 2. Anti-social City: Science and Crime in late-Victorian Britain; Trevor Harris 3. Greater Expectations: Intolerance and Control of Public Space, Anti-social Behaviour in the Nineteenth and Twenty-first Centuries; Craig Johnstone 4. Anti-social Behaviour and 'Civilizing' Regulation in the British City: Comparing Victorian and Contemporary Eras; John Flint and Ryan Powell 5. From Scurrilous Periodical to the Public Platform. Policing Blasphemers and Anti-social Behaviour: Constructing the Public Peace Then and Now; David Nash 6. Anarchists, Authorities and the Battle for Public Space, 1880-1914: Recasting Political Protest as Anti-social Behaviour; Constance Bantman 7. Keep Them Kettled! Student Protests, Policing and Anti-social Behaviour; Sarah Pickard 8. Anti-social Behaviour and the London 'Riots': Social Meaning-making of the Anti-social; Christian Morgner 9. The Aesthetics of Anti-social Behaviour; Andrew Millie PART II: ANTI-SOCIAL BEHAVIOUR, THE VULNERABLE AND THE MARGINALIZED 10. Addressing Juvenile Anti-social Behaviour in Victorian England: Mary Carpenter and the Reformatory Schools; Aurelie Baudry 11. Truancy and Anti-social Behaviour in England in the late Victorian Era and under New Labour; Anne Beauvallet 12. The Politics of 'Anti-Social' Behaviour within the 'Troubled Families' Programme; Sue Bond-Taylor 13. Anti-Social Behaviour Among Homeless People: Assumptions or Reality?; Jamie Harding and Adele Irving 14. Is Nomadism the 'Problem'? The Social Construction of Gypsies and Travellers as Perpetrators of 'Anti-social' Behaviour in Britain; Colin Clark and Becky Taylor 15.The Complexities, Contradictions and Consequences of Being 'Anti-social' in Northern Ireland; Sinead Gormally 16.Policing the Margins: Anti-Social Behaviour and the 'Underclass Discourse'; Didier Lassalle 17 . Anti-social Behaviour and the Vulnerable Public; Stuart Waiton 18. Anti-Social Behaviour: Marginality, Intolerance and the 'Usual Suspects'; Peter Squires 19. The Anti-sociality of Anti-social Behaviour Policy; Emma Bell PART III: ANTI-SOCIAL BEHAVIOUR, RECREATION AND LEISURE 20 . 'Roughs on the Turf' and 'Suburban Saturnalia': Anti-social Behaviour on Victorian Racecourses; Emmanuel Roudaut 21. Victorian Respectability, 'Anti-social Behaviour' and the Music Hall, 1880-1900; John Mullen 22. Drunkenness, Anti-social Behaviour, Class, Gender and Alcohol in the Making of the Habitual Drunkards Act, 1870-1879; An Vleugels 23. Symbolism and the 'Free Market': The Regulation of Alcohol and Anti-social Behaviour Past and Present; Deborah Talbot 24. Psychotic (e)states: Where Anti-social Behaviour is Merged with Recreational Drug Use to Signify the Social Problem Group; Shane Blackman and Andrew Wilson 25.Regulating Anti-Social Behaviour and Disorder Amongst Football Spectators; Mark James and Geoff Pearson

About the Author :
Sarah Pickard is a Senior Lecturer in British Politics and Society at the Sorbonne Nouvelle University, France. Her main research interests are in contemporary Youth Studies focusing on the interaction between the elaboration and reception of youth policy.

Review :
"This is a gem of a book. It is an impressive collection of essays that successfully problematizes and historicizes anti-social behaviour. Moreover, it is a truly interdisciplinary endeavour - and it is all the stronger as a result. It is theoretically-informed, packed full of fascinating case studies and has much to offer historians, criminologists, and sociologists, not to mention those working in the fields of police studies, politics and social policy. It casts fresh light on the history of anti-social behaviour in the Victorian era as well as underlining the complex nature of the phenomenon as it manifests itself at the start of the twenty-first century." - Andy Croll, University of South Wales, UK "The meanings attributed to the contested term 'anti-social behaviour', the governance and regulation of the phenomenontogether with its derivation and aetiology, are questions that invoke lively debates. By historically situating such debates and by tracing the contextual continuities and changes that frame understandings of, and responses to,'anti-social behaviour', Pickard's edited volume makes a major scholarly contribution." - Professor Barry Goldson, Charles Booth Chair of Social Science, University of Liverpool, UK "This is a comprehensive exploration of conduct attracting censure and a variety of controls in Victorian and contemporary Britain. The parallels and differences between the two eras are well drawn. This is the most complete survey of perceptions of anti-social behaviour and action to curb it now available, filling in detail gaps in previous overviews. In each era marginal groups are targeted and a wide range of behaviours are seen as 'anti-social'." - Elizabeth Burney, University of Cambridge, UK