Asbos were introduced by the British government in April 1999, as a flagship of then Home Secretary Jack Straw’s law and order programme. Though initial use of the term was as a capitalized acronym: ASBO (Anti-social Behaviour Order), the use of the form Asbo quickly became popular and has more recently prevailed as the main variant, used countably and in compounds such as Asbo kid/youth/teenager, Asbo thug/yob. Asbo is another example which reflects the general tendency in acronym formation to take those ‘initial letters’ which make for a catchy and easily pronounced word.