THE acronym Asbo has now become as much a part of British judicial jargon as the once ubiquitous GBH.

In the six years since the Government introduced them, Anti-Social Behaviour Orders have been slapped on everyone from yobs to nuisance neighbours.

In fact, they've become so popular that twice as many were obtained from the courts last year in the region served by the West Mercia Constabulary than in the year before.

Does this mean they're working?

The Asbo is certainly an important weapon in the arsenal against the kind of low-level crime that makes life a misery for many people across the region.

Because it's relatively easy to obtain, police can crack down on petty criminals without expending dozens of man-hours or becoming deluged in paperwork.

That means the kind of offence the boys in blue might have turned a blind eye to before 1999 is now actually being tackled.

And, as our story on page 3 reveals, Asbos are popular with the public, who see them having an impact on the yob culture they see all around them.

But Asbos need to be made more effective before they restore people's confidence in the police and the criminal justice system.

Measures to preserve the anonymity of witnesses and, conversely, allow the identity of miscreants to be published - something for which the Worcester News has campaigned - will go some way to doing this.

So the evidence on Asbos is in. The verdict? A qualified success.