People experiencing homelessness are disproportionately criminalised in areas with Public Spaces Protection Orders (PSPOs), a new report reveals.
A new study by researchers at Sheffield Hallam University has found that there are inconsistencies with how PSPOs and anti-social behaviour laws are being used to police people experiencing street homelessness.
The study also discovered evidence that some of the laws are ‘being stretched beyond their original intentions’, according to the report’s press release.
Dr Vicky Heap, co-author of the report from Sheffield Hallam University, said: ‘The misuse of Public Spaces Protection Orders and other anti-social behaviour powers are disproportionately criminalising people experiencing street sleeping homelessness.
‘Some of the areas we looked at were handing out the most fixed penalty notices for breach of PSPOs, which are already known to make life more difficult for people experiencing street homelessness who cannot pay the fine and end up in court.
‘Our research shows how important it is to use these laws correctly and ethically, prioritising support before enforcement and encouraging policing bodies to challenge poor practice.’
The study, which was based on 68 interviews with rough sleepers and frontline workers, found that there has been a shift in the threshold of what is defined as anti-social, with a wider range of behaviours subject to enforcement in the case study areas.
The research, which also drew on an online questionnaire of key informants that received 108 responses, also found that ‘continual dispersal and displacement’ were central to the experience of being policed in a PSPO area.
Despite the emphasis on moving people on, rough sleepers in the case study areas generally returned to the PSPO area, producing a cycle of policing and dispersal/displacement which neither stopped nor deterred the behaviours of people experiencing street homelessness, according to the study.
