Graffiti - Art or Vandalism?

What is graffiti? It is any lettering or image drawn, scratched or spray-painted on another property (usually, a wall). There is a thin line that separates graffiti as art from vandalism and making that delineation has proven to be difficult not only for the government but also for private citizens.

Generally, graffiti evolved from street gangs who want to mark their territory. Another kind of graffiti is hiphop or tagger graffiti, which usually specifies their names or aliases. Graffiti has been justified by these groups as a means of self-expression, whenever they spray paint names or messages on walls, public buildings and other structures. However, owners of these structures often regard graffiti as vandalism, primarily meant to deface and destroy the façade and appearance of these places.

Graffiti - Is There a Solution?

One of the proposed solutions to vandalism has been the construction of free walls. As the term implies, anyone is free to place graffiti on these walls and it will not be considered vandalism. However, the few instances wherein free walls were erected proved to be failures since it only served to increase vandalism. Most gangs will tell you that placing graffiti illegally is part of its appeal and being given free rein on certain areas means that the thrill is gone for them. They may spray paint on the free walls first and then move on to another location where it is not allowed to apply graffiti.

It has proven to be a challenge for the police to catch those who are guilty of graffiti crimes since it is impossible to keep track of every square inch of a given area. This has given rise to community policing which makes every community member responsible for reporting all crimes that they witness, including those related to vandalism. While the laws on vandalism are different from one state to another, they are making increasingly stringent legislations to combat the problem.

What the Law Says About Graffiti

And contrary to the misconception, vandalism is always illegal and becomes even more serious when damage has been done to public or private property. In California for instance, vandalism can be charged as a felony if the damage you have done exceeds $5000. They are also working on a law that will allow them to combine multiple instances of vandalism so that they amount to a felony, instead of a single instance, which may be harder to pin down.

There was a move made in Chicago to ban the sale of aerosol cans but it was ruled out since it was thought to be unconstitutional. But this cannot be altogether effective since the vandals can simply go out and find other mediums for vandalism. In fact by banning aerosol cans, they may even be spurring the beginning of a black market on these products.

Unless there is explicit consent from the owner for an artist to write or paint on the walls of a structure, then this may still fall under the crime of graffiti or vandalism. Proper education, even in grade school children should be fostered so that graffiti does not start at a young age. At the same time, there should be active cleanup efforts of those places strewn with graffiti in a given community.

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