Warning antisocial behaviour is being ignored

People persistently targeted by perpetrators are left to “suffer in silence” amid shortcomings in the response by agencies including the police and councils, it is claimed.

Publishing the findings, Victims’ Commissioner for England and Wales Baroness Newlove said “depressingly little” has changed since her husband Garry was killed outside his home after confronting vandals in 2007.

She said: “It seems implausible that, 12 years later, here I am still raising the issue of anti-social behaviour.

“The feedback from victims is that, all too often, they feel they are being persistently targeted by their perpetrators, and yet persistently ignored by those with the power to prevent and intervene.

“For many victims, their experience can be like living a nightmare.”

Calling for “systemic change”, Baroness Newlove said she found it “infuriating” to hear anti-social behaviour referred to as “low-level crime”.

The Crime Survey for England and Wales estimated 37 per cent of adult respondents experienced or witnessed antisocial behaviour in their local area last year - the highest percentage since data collection started in 2011/2012.

Separate figures show around 1.4 million incidents of antisocial behaviour were recorded by police in 2018, a 16 per cent fall on the previous 12 months.

A Local Government Association spokesman said: “Councils know people look to them to tackle the anti-social behaviour which can make a law-abiding resident’s life hell or blight an entire neighbourhood.

“It’s a role they take extremely seriously but one which is being made increasingly challenging as a result of losing 60p out of every £1 they had from government to spend on services in the past decade.”