Translating Ethical Frameworks Into User-Centred Anti-Social Behaviour Interventions
Rachel Hill, Tom Owen, Julian Hough
TLDR
This paper designs and evaluates ethical digital interventions, like QR reporting and awareness courses, to address anti-social behavior.
Key contributions
- Frames Anti-Social Behaviour (ASB) intervention as a Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) problem.
- Embeds an ethical framework (proportionality, personalization, responsibility) into digital designs.
- Develops QR-based public reporting interfaces and a web-based ASB awareness course.
- Evaluates the ethical framework and QR interfaces positively via interviews and surveys.
Why it matters
This work introduces a novel, ethically-grounded technological approach to combat anti-social behavior, moving beyond traditional punitive methods. By integrating user-centred digital tools, it aims to foster public responsibility and improve community cohesion. This could inform future policy, balancing existing approaches with tech-driven prevention.
Original Abstract
In 2025 one million Anti-Social Behaviour (ASB) cases were recorded in England & Wales, impacting community cohesion. Statutory guidance presents punitive interventions that lack technological input and does not often root ethical frameworks within government system design. This work takes a novel approach in framing ASB intervention as a human-computer interaction problem by embedding an ethical framework into two digital designs, aiming to increase public responsibility and prevent ASB. The first design is extracted from UK public opinion research, the ethical themes include punitive proportionality, personalisation, and responsibility. The second are digital interventions that present a set of QR-based public reporting interfaces and a web-based ASB awareness course that precedes punitive escalation. Our methodology involves structured interviews and online surveys. Results positively evaluated the framework and QR interfaces. Such outcomes could inform the expansion of technological intervention utilisation that does not replace existing punitive approaches, but balances them.
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