Graffiti has become a widespread problem in recent decades, affecting locations far from major cities. Despite the popular notion that graffiti is mainly associated with gangs, it may be found in a wide range of settings.
Graffiti is generally seen as a chronic, if not intractable, problem due to its increasing ubiquity and high accompanying costs. Few graffiti artists are captured, and some avoid capture by changing their methods and locations.
Although, this is rarely reported to authorities. Many people believe that graffiti is not a police or “real criminal” concern, or that officers have no authority to intervene. While promoting graffiti as a valid form of urban street art has become a serious concern, the mass media has also played a role in its growth.
Graffiti and its Purpose
Graffiti is a ubiquitous issue, yet its severity varies greatly. While a single act of graffiti may appear minor, it has a cumulative effect that invites more graffiti. Today, it is used to raise public awareness of blight and gang activities. Local graffiti patterns appear to change through time, resulting in the emergence of distinct graffiti shapes, locations, and purposes.
Graffiti is commonly used to criticize the government’s failure to safeguard communities and keep criminals under control. Graffiti has also been associated with lower transport usage, retail sales, and property value.
The Effects of Graffiti
Understanding the core causes of your problem might help you build your own local analytic questions, choose successful intervention points, and respond appropriately.
Graffiti Types
Graffiti can be found in a variety of forms. The basic classifications are as follows:
- Graffiti used by gangs to identify territory or threaten violence, as well as imitation graffiti that looks like gang graffiti.
- Tagger graffiti ranges from simple to intricate street art.
- Graffiti that is discriminatory, random or spontaneous demonstrations of “youthful exuberance,” political, religious, or ethnic slurs are transmitted through ideological graffiti.
Graffiti gang and tagger graffiti are the most common types of graffiti in cities. Other types of graffiti can be harmful, but they are less common. The percentage of graffiti for various causes varies greatly between jurisdictions. It will be covered in greater depth later.
Graffiti Targets and Locations
Graffiti is commonly found on both public and private property. It can be found on trains, subways, buses, transit hubs, and shelters. It can be found on automobiles, streets, freeways, traffic signs, statues and monuments, and bridges. It can be found on utility poles and boxes, billboards and trees, as well as commercial and residential walls, in addition to vending machines and park benches. Graffiti can be seen practically anywhere open to the public.
Graffiti can be found in a variety of places. Graffiti-covered areas, especially those with contrasting colours, may attract vandals. Certain criminals are obstinate, conducting psychological warfare against authorities or landowners to claim a specific region. This obstinacy appears to be linked to a growing disdain for authority.
The absence of direct accountability for graffiti places is common. Buildings or public places that have absentee landlords. Criminals target areas with poor lighting and a lack of police or security officers.
Graffiti appears to favour particular targets and locations such as highways and overpasses, wall constructions, locations with erratic surveillance, as well as trains and buses, among others.
Furthermore, two surfaces that are prone to graffiti are luminous surfaces and large, flat surfaces.
Conclusion
Graffiti, no matter how purposeful it can be, is detrimental to the appearance of many public spaces as well as private properties and businesses. Covering them up could be costly, especially when vandalism happens quite often in your area. Thus, it’s not only important to use protective coverings and tinting supplies, but it’s also vital that we discourage this type of vandalism especially when social media is a better outlet for these messages.
Are you in need of glass tinting supplies? Premier Film Distribution offers 3M, SolarGard, Avery Dennison, and SunTek products in Australia. Our diverse range of products also comes with wholesale discounts. Shop today and score our best promos!
