Antisocial behaviour orders (ASBOs), a headline grabbing shoot-from-the-hip policy introduced by the Labour government in a desperate attempt to demonstrate that it could control unruly behaviour, are to be removed. Home Secretary, Theresa May, has indicated that instead police will be given powers to make offenders repair community damage.

Former Home Secretary, Jack Straw, has defended the ASBO and is quoted as saying that they had made a huge contribution to cutting crime and removing them would be a blow to communities blighted by yobs. But criminal practitioners know differently. So often the ASBO “badge” is worn with pride by the young offender who gains credibility among his peers, and when he reoffends – as he usually does – the courts are very slow to mete out the severe punishment he was promised at the time of its imposition.

But the ASBO is a civil remedy, and the main criticism is reserved for its ability to criminalise individuals merely because they had breached the order which had been imposed because the perceived offender was merely a nuisance in his community. It is the sort of order one has come to expect from a totalitarian regime, not one which professes to prize justice.

The type of social problem the ASBO was meant to cure is much better dealt with by education, discipline and example. Let the criminal law deal with punishment, retribution and rehabilitation where appropriate.