NCJ Number
75263
Journal
Public Interest Issue: 54 Dated: (Winter 1979) Pages: 3-11
Date Published
1979
Length
9 pages
Annotation
This essay explores the incidence of subway graffiti in New York and considers some possible methods of deterrence.
Abstract
Graffiti are enormous graphic murals which decorate the sides of subway cars. They are multicolored and depict no words with the exception of names. Although those who paint graffiti consider themselves artists, the cars they vandalize are reminders that the subway environment is uncontrollable. There is evidence that the graffiti artists, who invariably steal the paint they use, do graduate to more serious crime. For almost half of the graffiti artists, there is evidence that graffiti making is part of an ordinary criminal career. Because the graffiti is usually a name, almost every graffiti artist becomes known to the police. At any given time, there are only 500 or so graffiti makers, ranging in age from 11 to 16 years. Proposals to deal with the graffiti artists include detention, requiring them to clean up the graffiti, securing the yards, using a fix on the cars to resist paint, and giving graffiti artists summer jobs. All have been tried. Some efforts have been made to divert the graffiti artists from subway car to canvas. Although graffiti is one of the lesser crimes urban gangs specialize in, its control would be a major contribution to the effort to change the city's image. Some experimental programs have been funded where trained juvenile officers, social workers, counselors, or other youth workers work with the apprehended graffiti artists, but for the present, graffiti is just one more unmanageable problem.