ABSTRACT
Introduced in 1998 as part of the Crime and Disorder Act, anti-social behaviour orders [ASBOs] have been used in various locations around the UK to police street-based sex work [SBSW]. In this chapter, we look at how ASBOs were used regularly in an area of north London as part of a targeted policing strategy that focused on the removal of SBSW. Drawing on empirical data collected during 2010–12, we argue that ASBOs and other punitive measures have been used as a way of sanitising the area, removing ‘undesirable’ Others that might impinge on the aestheticized areas of consumption that regeneration seeks to create.
