Facts Involving Graffiti – 2017-2018, 2018-2019
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Serious teenage girl with hood on listening to music from headphones standing on background of graffiti wall 12-20 year old males is represented most in age/gender research
- 50% likely more to abuse drug substances or commit a crime if involved in graffiti
- some political campaigns are starting to mimic graffiti in SW regions
- areas already ‘tagged’ are 62% more likely to be tagged again if it is removed
- Phoenix Arizona graffiti removal costs taxpayers over $6 million a year
One of the main issues with graffiti is that it is often done as an act of vandalism, meaning that someone is painting or scratching onto a surface that does not belong to them. This can damage public or privately owned property, and it can also leave a bad message to passersby in the community.
Statistics show that the highest amount of graffiti artists are between the ages of twelve and twenty.
Unfortunately, statistics show that these people are at a 50% increased risk of drug abuse, other types of criminal activity, and even injury from doing graffiti in dangerous areas. People who create graffiti also tend to think of the areas that they have painted or scratched as theirs, and anyone painting over it could be violently assaulted. There are many different types of graffiti, including a type that is specifically used by gangs. Gangs mark their territories and leave messages involving things that are going on within the gang through graffiti.
People also express their political views through graffiti. There is not a specific set of attitudes and views that graffiti artists hold, so these can differ greatly from one another. Some communities of graffiti artists put up political views just to see how long they last. If a work is removed quickly, the opinion was nor favored by the people in the immediate area. If the work is agreed with, it may last for several days.
The problem with this practice is that graffiti is constantly popping up over and over in the same area.
This causes a decrease in property values and businesses. People tend to see an area that has a lot of graffiti as an area that is declining, and this causes a lower amount of customers for businesses. It is believed that an area with a high amount of graffiti attracts other types of crime. This leads to people feeling unsafe in the area, which causes the decrease in property values. People leave the area, banks cannot sell the homes and have to lower the prices, and the value of housing in the area begins to fall dramatically.
Many people believe that graffiti and street art are the same, but they are not. Street art is meant to be observed by everyone and engage anyone in the public who sees it. This is typically the only legal type of graffiti. Typical graffiti is only meant to be seen an understood by other graffiti artists.
Most people do not realize that graffiti is also costly to the public. A portion of taxpayer money goes to removing graffiti each year in their communities. While this may only be one to three dollars for each person, this would still add up to a lot of money in the end.
One of the worst things that graffiti can be used for is expressing racist views. These types of graffiti may be more difficult for people to understand outside of the community in which it is made. This is because racist groups tend to only paint the name of their group, or even an abbreviation of it. People from outside of this area will most likely be unfamiliar with the names, but some people that live within the community may understand. Graffiti can be extremely harmful to the communities that people live in.
Source Links:
- http://www.gwinnettcb.org/resources/facts-figures/graffiti-facts-figures/
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Graffiti
- http://www.voxmagazine.com/arts/art/quick-facts-about-graffiti/article_bf0e70c8-91aa-5302-a049-037cc195e323.html
- https://www.thefactsite.com/2017/10/graffiti-facts.html
- http://news.bbc.co.uk/cbbcnews/hi/uk/newsid_1973000/1973430.stm
