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In historical terms, the search for ‘respect’ is nothing new. However, in the first decade of the twentieth century, the search for respect has reached a momentum unlike before. It has become an important issue in the UK and has become the focus of government policies. This unprecedented interest in respect was compelled by political reasons. The Respect Agenda of the government was seen as ‘contemporary civilising offensive’. It is an offensive agenda backed by anti-social behaviour enforcement measures where support comes in the form of threats of censure, where the definition of respectfulness and civility have been based on governmental assumptions of what the so-called majority of law-abiding citizens want. Rather than aiming to promote mutual respect and tolerance for difference, the Respect Agenda focused on the moral and behavioural improvement of a minority deemed to be anti-social and disrespectful. This chapter discusses the future of the Respect Agenda and the possible future directions of ‘securing respect’. It discusses what has happened to the Respect Agenda and the alternatives that may be used in promoting respect. It concludes that the Respect Agenda should remove some of the policy and legislative ‘clutter’ which hinders the promotion of respect. It does not suggest that all government interventions should be entirely removed and that anarchism is the solution to disrespect and anti-social behaviour. But a little less control and a little more uncertainty in public spaces may help. A greater encounter with otherness leads to greater tolerance, trust, engagement and empathy. Instead of forcing standard of behaviour, empathy should become the mark of true respect and civility.

The promotion of respect in society, like the concern about anti-social behaviour, engages with issues that on the one hand are relatively small or insignificant — dropping litter or not saying ‘thank you’, for example. The ‘ASBO (Anti-Social Behaviour Order) agenda’ in the United Kingdom has been criticised for its authoritarian dynamic — especially by those on the left. However, even for critics there appears to be an uncertainty about the nature of behaviour today and a certain sense that there are some real problems to be addressed. Some, for example, believe that we are living in a ‘culture of greed’ — a belief that raises questions not only about capitalism and consumerism, but also about the very nature of relationships between people — indeed about the nature of people themselves. This chapter argues that there are some new problems to address today, but that the problem we face is ultimately not one of an anti-social society but of an asocial society. It looks at Tony Blair's ‘Respect Agenda’ and the politics of behaviour, along with the so-called therapeutic me.

This chapter approaches the issue of addressing anti-social behaviour (ASB) in the United Kingdom from the perspective of practitioners and policy makers operating at a local level. It focuses on three aspects: practice and policy as applied in one local authority area (Leeds); the key issues for practitioners around the country (as identified by research undertaken by the National Community Safety Network); and new moves to address the causes, as well as the symptoms, of ASB (the government's Respect Agenda and the Positive Approaches group). The first section examines the strategic approach to ASB adopted in Leeds and the establishment and operation of policies and interventions to address ASB through a dedicated unit and multi-agency problem-solving panels. It describes the experiment in multiple Anti-Social Behaviour Orders (ASBOs) of Operation Cape and its mutation into smaller, rolling multi-agency programmes. The second section examines the findings of the National Community Safety Network's research. The third section looks at the proposals coming out of the Positive Approaches alliance.