Who Benefits From Criminal Behaviour Orders & Restrain Orders?

Domestic violence

There will be a small number of occasions when it will be appropriate to use a Criminal Behaviour Orders (CBO) in connection with domestic violence cases. But where there is a named victim and the offence is one which falls within the broad definition of being a domestic incident, an application for a ‘Restraining Order’ is more appropriate and can be made on acquittal as well as conviction. Restraining orders are intended to provide protection for an individual.

Hate Crime

An increasing number of incidents of anti-social behaviour are targeted at particular individuals, rather than neighbourhoods.

Such incidents may appear minor but the impact on the victim and their families may be devastating and life changing.

Hate crime can also have a negative impact on cohesion and integration in communities if incidents are not dealt with quickly and effectively.

A common feature of hostility based offending is escalation: from

relatively minor but common behaviour to increasingly serious and even life threatening offending.

Where there is evidence of hostility towards

• Personal Characteristics such as ethnicity;
  • Religion
  • Gender Identity
  • Sexual Orientation.
  • Disability.

Prosecutors should be proactive in seeking further evidence from the police.

Correctly identifying an anti-social behaviour case as a hate crime is important because the case can then be flagged and treated as a hate crime.

This means that they would follow hate crime prosecution legal guidance and take account of victim support needs in accordance with their policy regarding victims of the most serious crime.

Hate crime legal guidance includes:

• Racially
• Religiously aggravated crime.
• Homophobic
• Transphobic crime.
• Disability Hate Crime.

In all cases of hate crime, prosecutors should consider whether it is appropriate for the police to make further enquiries, for example:

• asking the victim, the victim’s carer and / or family, neighbours, housing agencies etc if there have been any other incidents involving this victim;
• checking whether the suspects have been involved in any other incidents and, if so, whether the victims on those occasions shared personal characteristics on the grounds of ethnicity, gender identity, sexual orientation or disability.

In recent years, a number of high profile incidents have underlined the link between anti-social behaviour and disability hate crime in particular.

Where the anti-social behaviour is targeted at a particular individual who is disabled or has a member of their family who is disabled, it is important that the prosecutor is proactive in seeking further information from the police.

Gang Related Crime

CBOs can be used to disrupt gang offending.

Prosecutors should be alert to the possibility of gang offending in a wide range of cases (including those involving drugs, firearms, offensive weapons, criminal damage, theft and domestic abuse) and, where appropriate, consider applying for a CBO.

CBO prohibitions to prevent gang offending include: non-association; exclusion zones; curfews; the wearing of hooded clothing; possession of unregistered mobile phones; and contributions to websites.

Social Media

CBOs are a useful tool to address the abuse of social media. Prosecutors should refer to the Guidelines on prosecuting cases involving communications sent via social media, and note that CBOs are more likely to be appropriate in Category 1 or 2 social media cases.

Please see the following links for more information:

• Rape Crisis Freephone 0808 802 9999
• SOS Rape Crisis info@sosrc.org.uk or call 01702 667590
• Victim Support Call free Supportline 08 08 16 89 111
• SARC (Sexual Assault Referral Centres)
• Sexually abused as a child – can I claim compensation?
• Emotional/Psychological/Mental Abuse
• Family Law Act 1996
• Serious Crime Act 2015
• Restraining Orders

 

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