The locality of Malak and its surrounds have often witnessed the manifestation of anti-social behaviour. The degree of this behaviour is a point of interesting discussion which lies somewhere between evidence and perception. For the local community members who have experienced first hand the consequences of anti-social behaviour by having their property damaged, violated and defaced, there is no doubt about the seriousness of the problem. For some others, what they hear in the community or read in the press is enough to instill a sense of fear that it is a question of 'when' they will be targeted by this behaviour and not 'if' they ever will.

Regularly, forums develop to discuss the extent of the situation, diagnose the problems, assess the needs and explore possible solutions to curb anti-social behaviour. These forums comprise views from a broad range of philosophical and ideological frameworks, and despite the good intentions of the participants, vary so widely in the values held by individuals that it becomes quite challenging to define issues and therefore agree on solutions.

Nonetheless, as it has been accepted that anti-social behaviour is a current issue in this locality, the willingness of people representing service providers, community based organisations and concerned individuals to get together and act must be validated. Having been part of a number of these forums, I am becoming increasingly concerned about two aspects of the response to anti-social behaviour; 1) the focus on the perpetrators acting outside of the greater sphere of social issues; and 2) the punitive approach to dealing with anti-social behaviour.

In my view, it is difficult to separate issues pertaining to anti-social behaviour from the reality of poverty, lack of access to services and general inequality—some of the ingredients causing alienation. Given the long history of such issues, it seems that alienation is part of the inheritance of people born on that side of the track. A way of life accustomed to restricted freedom to personal growth and development, which in turn needs a point of release. Thus, the pressure valve of unorthodox, unconventional and non-comforming behaviour often crosses over to deviancy.

Seldom is the response to anti-social and deviant behaviour considered from the point of view that such behaviour does not occur in a vacuum, but is a result of some form of well entrenched and institutionalised oppression and inequality. Consequently, the most obvious response is that of punishing the perpetrators and by-passing completely the core issues that may have led to the anti-social character formation.

The popular approach to appeasing community concerns around anti-social behaviour is to display little tolerance towards the perpetrators, 'carrot and stick' methods to control the situation and resorting to strict conservative values. This is can often be identified as Moral Authoritarianism.

Moral authoritarianism is the variation of Authoritarianism that emphasises Comformance over Interdependence. Moral authoritarians generally tend to have strong opinions about enforcing the moral order typical of religious conformance, strict family values, controlled freedom of expression, law enforcement and so on than about expanding collective initiatives like social programs. In my view, the moral authoritarian approach does little to establish any form of dialogue that may bring people together to gain a greater understanding of the reality of the individuals engaged in anti-social behaviour. In addition, this approach tends to focus on the manifestation of the problem, not necessarily the cause, thus bringing into a contest individuals from the same community while exonerating the root cause of the problem.

There is no suggestion here that anti-social behaviour needs to be left unfettered or unquestioned. On the contrary, the suggestion here is to create a dialogue that is based on understanding, not necessarily tolerance (we don't like headaches but we tolerate them), which addresses anti-social behaviour.

In this view, anti-social behaviour is seen from within the sphere of inequalities and oppression, the latter need to be address concurrently with the behaviour that emanates from these conditions if we are to make any in-roads into establishing meaningful relationships with the different members of our community.

What do you think?

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