Taking the blame and losing the home: women and anti-social behaviour

Since the early 1990s, anti-social behaviour by households living in the UK social rented sector has been highlighted as a key area of policy concern. Abandoning the usual stereotyped images, this paper reveals there to be significant differences in the nature of the problem according to the gender of perpetrators. We focus attention on the experiences of women-headed households involved in anti-social behaviour and the way in which landlords and the judicial system deal with such cases. It is suggested that the gender based differences revealed can only be adequately explained in terms of a wider analysis of gender relations. The paper illustrates the punitive approach taken by landlords in the first instance, and subsequently by the judicial system, to women-headed households who fail to control boyfriends 'and/or teenage sons' behaviour. The paper concludes by questioning the effectiveness of an approach, which fails to acknowledge the gender distinct nature of the problem, or to deal with the underlying causes of the problem.