court, applying the criminal standard of beyond all reasonable doubt. A power of committal to prison was available for breach of a civil injunction, but a court was unlikely to exercise that power. A person subject to an anti-social behaviour order where it did not follow a criminal conviction had an automatic right of appeal against both the making of the order and its terms to a higher court. There was also the availability of an appeal to the High Court by way of "case stated". There was no appeal against the variation of orders, and variation was used to add extra conditions, and to extend the duration of ASBOs. An application for an ASBO was considered by the courts in its civil jurisdiction, and was a civil order. However, breach of an ASBO was a criminal offence, and conviction could result in up to five years' imprisonment (two for a minor). Subsequent legislation compelled magistrates to make a Parenting Order, where a person under the age of 16 breached their ASBO. Other examples: Abusive behaviour Begging Flyposting Harassment Organising illegal raves Suicide attempts Theft Vandalism Less common ASBOs Less common and more conventional uses of ASBOs, as listed by a report to the Home Office to illustrate the difficulties with ASBOs, include: Two teenage boys from east Manchester forbidden to wear one golf glove, as it was a symbol of membership of a particular gang. A 13-year-old forbidden to use the word "grass" as a term of abuse in order to threaten people. A 15-year-old forbidden to play football in his street. A farmer (the first to be given an ASBO) who was instructed to keep his geese and pigs from damaging his neighbour's property. An 18-year-old ordered not to congregate with three or more other youths. He entered a local youth club that had a good reputation, and was arrested because there were more than three youths on the premises. He was intending to attend an event there on how to deal with anti-social behaviour. Reception From their inception, ASBOs were controversial. They were criticised as being "without strong and principled justification", a distraction from the failure of the government's law and order policies, a "recipe for institutionalised vigilantism", and an "emblem of punitive populism". Andrew Rutherford commented that the "ASBO provides a particularly striking example of the criminalisation of social policy". A MORI opinion poll published on