A call has been made to bolster services designed for early intervention in children's lives to support families and prevent anti-social behaviour in later years.
Warnings were also given to county councillors that alcohol was fuelling the problem, with increasing consumption among children as young as primary school age.
Head of community safety Jeff Fullard told the public protection select committee that
the county council had a key role to play in early intervention, going back even to two or three year olds.
"Health professionals talk about trends being set in young people," he said. "The critical time is the early years, and we have to get back there."
Mr Fullard, who stressed that anti-social behaviour was a problem among adults, as well as the young, added: "We want to bolster our services to get support staff in. Let's try to stop it happening, and not get to a stage when we are paying for them to go on courses at huge expense.
"We need to seek every opportunity to bolster early intervention."
Cllr James Walsh said there had been shocking revelations about the prevalence of alcohol consumption among primary school children.
"This was rammed home to me when I saw national statistics for young people dying of alcohol-induced liver disease," he added.
The effect of alcohol as far as anti-social behaviour was concerned could not be under-estimated.
A lot of parents were encouraging irresponsible behaviour, tolerating or even encouraging young offspring to abuse alcohol. More research was needed into this.
Cllr Francis Oppler said anti-social behaviour had a corrosive effect on individuals and communities.
The work of a special county council 'respect' taskforce concentrated on young people, but they were aware that such behaviour was also committed by older people – in some cases pensioners – and during neighbour disputes.
Emily King, of the county council's community safety unit, said the number of individual perpetrations of anti-social behaviour in West Sussex from April up to the present date involved fewer than 1,000 individuals.
"But we recognise that it causes alarm, harassment and distress," she said.
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