ABSTRACT
There is significant overlap between young people's so-called "antisocial behaviour" in and out of school. This chapter considers young people who are excluded from school, some characteristics of their families, the nature of their antisocial behaviour, as well as possible reasons behind it. It discusses some of the societal responses to such behavior. The chapter introduces some practical approaches that try to foster alternative ways of responding to young people's antisocial behaviour. These include some of the contributions that a mental health professional can make within exclusion systems, together with the value of multi-agency working. Multi-agency working has long been rhetoric of choice for policy-makers, while putting it into practice has traditionally been more difficult to do than say. The chapter describes different ways in which the rhetoric can be made a functioning reality. Anti-Social Behaviour Orders (ASBOs) are "slapped" on young people, just as they "slap" and "happy slap" each other and members of the public.
