Behaving in Britain

No matter where you travel, it's always a good idea to be on your best behaviour in a foreign country. This is true in Britain too! In Spot on in March, you could read about the special powers that British police have to stop anti-social behavious. People don't always have to commit a crime to get into trouble with the police. It's enough to be annoying or to cause distress – and if you do this, you could get an ASBO.

Anti-Social Behaviour Orders - or ASBOs for short - are designed to stop annoying and disruptive behaviour in communities. They are a set of rules about how to behave.

Before ASBOs were introduced in 1999, it was more difficult for police to do anything about noisy neighbours or troublemakers who made other people fee lintimidated but did not commit a crime. ASBOs were introduced to give police more powers and prevent life in a community being ruined by a small minority. People who disobey the conditions in their ASBO can go to prison.

It is very unlikely that a tourist would get an ASBO! But if you are thinking of living in Britain, for example on an exchange programme, you should remember that anti-social behaviour is treated very seriously by the police.

Anti-social behaviour includes:

• playing loud music or being excessively noisy
• swearing, shouting or making racist comments
• intimidating other people
• hanging around in large groups
• being drunk in public
• dropping rubbish on the ground