What can be done in communities to prevent anti-social behaviour?

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SPEAKER_2 (1:00)

The Hard Shoulder, with Ciara Kelly and Shane Colman. On Newstalk, with Kiya.

Shane Colman (1:08)

Now, really interesting report and figures out from the ESRI, a number of things jumping out from the report. Anti-social behaviour increasing for girls while remaining broadly stable for boys over the past decade. And also the figures suggesting that behaviour among young people is shaped not just by individual circumstances, but by the environments they grow up in. I suppose to delve a bit deeper into this, we're joined by criminologist and community worker, Triona O'Connor. Triona, thanks indeed for joining us.

Can I just ask you first off about, before we get into the community and environment and so on, your reaction to that news that there's an increase in the number of 13-year-old girls who reported hitting, punching or kicking someone. It's shocking. Are you surprised by it?

Triona O'Connor (2:02)

It's very shocking actually, but it's not surprising because we're seeing it on the ground. So I suppose when you look at behaviours like that, sometimes them kind of behaviours are like a form of currency or a way to achieve status and like an identity for a person.

And other times they can be about protection for the young girl amongst her peers. So they might act in this antisocial way because other achievements may not be there for them like, you know, maybe they're opting out with sports, for example. So sports has gone for them or they might be not doing very well in school. So they feel that other ways to be prosocial, I suppose, are inaccessible to them. So this is the way of lashing out.

Shane Colman (2:45)

Yeah, one in five 13-year-olds reporting hitting, punching or kicking another person. That is pretty shocking.

Triona O'Connor (2:55)

It really is. I suppose, too, what we're looking at is, when we look at some kind of social media platforms where this kind of behaviour, this kind of rage baiting can be used for personal clout and the status as well and to get attention. So often these kind of behaviours are sending us a message and the message is, I want to be heard and I want to be seen and I want to be listened to. So we need to start asking questions, what happened to that young person that's made the move towards this type of violent behaviour and then delve deep into that and then hopefully help the young person to move away from that type of behaviour.

Shane Colman (3:30)

Yeah. I'm guessing you're not overly surprised by the figures showing antisocial behaviour among young people being shaped, not just by individual circumstances, which is obviously important as well, but by the environments they grow up in.

Yeah.

Triona O'Connor (3:46)

I mean, the physical environment and the physical design that we have of our communities is very important. And one of the things that I often speak about is the lack of a toured space. So a safe alcohol space, an indoor space for young people to socialise at times when they really need it. So somewhere that can stop them going on street corners or onto transport platforms, for example, or even in stairways. So youth clubs and community hubs that really should be open after Monday to Friday, 9 to 5 and should have professional youth workers there and sport and programmes. And even school facilities that should be open to young people so that they have somewhere to go that doesn't involve alcohol or doesn't involve antisocial behaviour.

Some of the other stuff that we see in some of the communities around Ireland is we see visible signs of neglect and this kind of dereliction of public spaces will give the impression to people and often is because they're unmonitored. So there's a perceived lack of authority in a place like that and that in itself for young people lowers that psychological barrier for them to engage in antisocial behaviour because they feel that they kind of they won't get caught or they feel that nobody's watching them. And like, anyway, there's some monitored like that, a physical environment like that with what we call low natural surveillance. So no eyes on the street can be a magnet for young people to hang around in. And then that can become intimidating for people within that neighbourhood.