Anti-social Behaviour
9.30 In addition to measuring actual crime levels the BCS also explores attitudinal measures such as public perceptions of changing crime levels, fear of crime, perceptions of anti-social behaviour, confidence in the criminal justice system and victim and witness satisfaction with the police.
9.31 In the South West region in 2006/07 the proportion of people (13%) perceiving high levels of anti-social behaviour (ASB) was significantly lower than the average for England and Wales. Perceptions of high levels of ASB were significantly lower in all the police force areas in the South West than in England and Wales except Wiltshire.
9.32 South West respondents particularly cited young people hanging around (25%) and vandalism and graffiti (22%) as perceived ASB problems (using 2004/05 BCS data - a more detailed analysis of the 2004/05 BCS is available for ASB than of the 2006/07 survey - click here).
9.33 Analysis of national trends reveals that perceptions of anti-social behaviour are related to a variety of household and area characteristics. For example, according to the 2006/07 BCS, in the country as a whole only 8% of respondents from rural areas perceived high levels of anti-social behaviour compared to 20% of urban households questioned. Equally, much higher percentages of those living in hard-pressed areas 7 (31%) than the population as a whole (18%) perceive problems with anti-social behaviour. Although the South West has a much smaller proportion of people living in deprived areas 8 (3%) than the England average (10%) the region nonetheless includes 98 census-based ‘Super Output Areas’ that rank within the 10% most deprived in England 9 in which live almost 150,000 people. Areas of greatest deprivation are concentrated in some of the South West’s major urban centres (for example Bristol) which also represent the areas with the highest crime levels in the region.
