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V OL . 1 N O . 1 A UTUMN 2006ASBOs and Behaviour Orders:Institutionalised Intolerance of Youth?Claire Hamilton and Mairéad SeymourAbstractThis paper argues that the introduction of Behaviour Orders in Ireland creates a legalmechanism which facilitates the imposition of the majority conception of order withinthe community on its more marginalised members such as children and young people,much as has happened with ASBOs in the UK.The paper begins by suggesting thatorder/disorder is defined and imposed in the community by the more powerfulelements within it and that what constitutes order/disorder is necessarily variableaccording to the experiences and perceptions of community members.A close legalanalysis of the new Irish legislation governing Behaviour Orders is presented, andparallels with the British legislation are highlighted,with a view to examining the waysin which the law institutionalises the majority conception of order.The social and legalaspects of the paper are drawn together in the argument that the ambiguitysurrounding the definition and interpretation of anti-social behaviour rendersBehaviour Orders an imprudent response to anti-social behaviour amongst youngpeople in the community.KeywordsBehaviour Orders;ASBOs; youth; community; conceptions of disorder.IntroductionWith the passage of the Criminal Justice Act 2006 and the introduction into Irish law ofthe ‘Behaviour Order’, first cousin to the ‘Anti-Social Behaviour Order’ (ASBO)introduced in England and Wales under the Crime and Disorder Act 1998, the wellestablished Irish art of imitating British legislation has continued. To borrow the phraseof the late John Kelly TD, it is one in a long line of legislative ideas ‘taken over here andgiven a green outfit with silver buttons to make it look native’ 1 , with little thought beinggiven to our less severe crime problem and cultural differences. A Behaviour Order is anorder made by a court to protect the public from anti-social behaviour. Although it isdesignated as civil in nature, breach of a Behaviour Order does not invoke the normalcontempt of court procedure for breach of a civil order, but in fact constitutes a criminaloffence. In Britain, ASBOs may be made with respect to any person aged 10 or over butthey have had particular implications for children and young people as they are the mostlikely recipients (Burney, 2002). Recent Home Office statistics have revealed that out of atotal of 4,649 ASBOs which have been issued since their introduction in 1999, 2,057 haveY OUTH S TUDIES I RELAND61