Seven years ago, anti-social behaviour orders were trumpeted as the Government's new weapon in the war against the thugs who terrorise our neighbourhoods. As a Sunderland teenager admits killing a family man eight days after having an order imposed on him by the courts, Tony Kearney examines whether Asbos are working.

WHEN Tony Blair was first elected as Prime Minister back in 1997, the anti-social behaviour order was revealed as the centrepiece of New Labour's battle against the yob culture.

At first - much to the Government's frustration - use of the orders was slow, with only 100 imposed across the country in the eight months after the legislation came into force in April 1999. It was not until January 2000 that three York teenagers earned the dubious distinction of becoming the first in the region to have their behaviour curtailed by the courts. Since then, the use of the orders has become so commonplace that the word 'Asbo' has moved into common parlance.

According to the latest Home Office figures, up to September last year a total of 3,826 Asbos had been issued in England Wales - of which there were exactly 200 in this region, 73 in the Northumbria force area, 53 in Durham, 40 in Cleveland and 34 in North Yorkshire.

The orders are primarily designed to curtail the loutish conduct - excessive noise, public drinking, verbal abuse and harassment - and low-level criminal activity which make other people's lives a misery.

The orders, which require a lesser standard of proof than a criminal court, allow the courts to curtail such behaviour by banning individuals from specific streets or estates, preventing them from public drinking, or by imposing other appropriate restrictions. Although much of the behaviour they are designed to clamp down on comes under the area of civil law, any breach of the orders is a criminal matter and offenders can be jailed.

It is a distinction which has thrown up a number of anomalies.

Central to the Government's scheme was that anti-social offenders should be "named and shamed". The automatic right to anonymity guaranteed to juveniles appearing in court was controversially scrapped - allowing the media to give details of those youths who had an Asbo imposed.

However, an increasing number of juveniles hauled before the criminal courts for breaching the terms of their Asbos had their anonymity restored and the Press were banned from identifying them, even where they had been previously named and shamed at earlier hearings.

The system was only changed in April, partly in response to a challenge by The Northern Echo, following the case of a 14-year-old persistent offender from Darlington.

Asbos also came under fire for the unusual restrictions placed on offenders. In October, a 15-year-old from Chester-le-Street was banned from being in possession of a football after his practising drove neighbours mad. In April a 51-year-old Northallerton woman was served with an Asbo after throwing sticks of rhubarb at her brother. Then a Middlesbrough teenager was banned from appearing in public wearing a baseball cap, following fears he could use a hat to disguise his identity and commit crime.

The criticism of Asbos has mounted as the number of orders breached by offenders has risen. Home Office figures show that by the end of 2003, 42 per cent of all orders imposed by the courts had been breached. The figure for juvenile breaches was 40 per cent, while 47 per cent of adults breached the orders. However, only half of those who breached their Asbo were actually jailed for doing so.

These figures were put into sharp focus earlier this week when 16-year-old Gary Prescott pleaded guilty at Newcastle Crown Court to the manslaughter of family man Thomas Noble. The 52-year-old died as he tried to break up a street fight in Sunderland. Just eight days earlier, Sunderland Youth Court had imposed an Asbo on Prescott for persistent criminal damage and drunk and disorderly behaviour.

The orders have been attracting increasing criticism from all sides of the political spectrum. In April, a coalition of trade unionists and civil liberties campaigners launched a campaign to review the use of Asbos which were described by Harry Fletcher, assistant general secretary of the probation union Napo as "being used by police and local authorities as a catch-all to sweep off the streets anyone whose behaviour is eccentric - or to some people is disagreeable".

At the same time, the Conservative Party was describing the orders during the election campaign as a failed alternative to prison.

Sunderland councillor and former Parliamentary candidate Robert Oliver says: "With so many Asbos being breached, they are effectively becoming worthless except for low level crimes. It is likely that unless more effective measures are introduced to deal with offenders who breach Asbos then they will continue to be ignored. Asbos are no substitute for custodial sentences among persistent criminals."

However, despite the growing concern, a number of senior police officers have defended the use of the orders - including the area commander of Sunderland, the area where Mr Noble lost his life.

Chief Superintendent Jim Campbell says: "This tragic event highlights the tendency of a small minority within our communities to act irresponsibly without considering the potential impact of their actions. There is inevitably a small core of individuals who, regardless of what we do, are determined to continue to offend and the creation of the Asbo is national recognition of this issue.

"This Asbo has been breached in heartbreaking circumstances, but this does not mean it is an ineffective piece of legislation. Prosecuting those who breach Asbos deters others either already subject to an Asbo or engaged in antisocial behaviour, by highlighting the potential consequences of their actions."

Chris Southey, a senior legal advisor to Durham Police, accepts that a significant proportion of Asbos in the county have been breached, but says: "The orders contain a long list of prohibitions and restrictions imposed on people with a long history of criminal offending and it is perhaps unrealistic to expect those sort of people to modify or change their behaviour almost overnight.

"You can only judge the success or otherwise of Asbos in the long term and on that basis we have had some very notable successes.

"Several of the original orders which were first issued in the early days after the legislation were passed have now lapsed and we have not sought to renew them, which suggests they have had a really positive impact over a length of time."