Graffiti Identification - Essay Example

? Graffiti/ Gang Identification and Restorative Justice al Affiliation All over the world, most people have the mentality that places with graffiti’s are not secure and thus they tend to avoid them. The presence of graffiti any where be it on private walls and buildings, or even on public places has had a lot of impact to the communities. Some of theses impacts are positive while others are negative. It is important for the members of the society to identify positive and negative graffiti. Due to the fact that negative impacts override the positive impacts of graffiti, many governments have implemented measures to try and combat the negative impacts; some of these measures have been successful while others are not. This essay will shed light on the above areas, and at the end of the research the reader will be able to understand the whole concept of graffiti. Keywords: Graffiti, Restorative Justice, Gang Identification What is Graffiti? Graffiti have been an issue of concern to the members of different communities because of their impacts. There are positive impacts but the negative impacts have been found to override the positive impacts. Graffiti can be traced back to Ancient Greece and the Roman Empire (Marchesi, Saner & Wasserfall, 2009). Today, most of those who do graffiti do it on the subways and walls of big cities and vehicles among other areas. Most of the sharp instruments like pencils, marker pens and even knives serve as mediums of creating graffiti (Morgan & Louis, 2009). Many people have had the mentality that areas with graffiti are unsafe. According to Morgan and Louis (2009), the term graffiti refers to informal marks, scratching, carvings, drawings or even paintings made on people’s property without their authorization. Graffiti is of different kinds and each kind has its particular characteristics. For example, Hip hop graffiti has a characteristic of mural paintings and ‘tagging’ (Morgan & Louis, 2009). Impacts of Graffiti on the Community Positive Impacts Graffiti has often been criticized as causing negating impacts to the community, and it is very difficult to convince some of the people otherwise. However, what should be understood is that there are positively motivated graffiti. The following are some of the positive impacts of graffiti: 1. Promotes young talent: Most of the time, graffiti have been seen as causing a lot of damage to the community. However, it is one way of promoting the talents of young people. Graffiti has been seen as inspiring to young artists since they get the opportunity to show case their creative sides. For example, South Ayrshire’s community safety partnership has helped young people from the town of Wallacetoun on a graffiti project (South Ayrshire Council, 2013). 2. Conveying a message: Some kinds of graffiti have been used to convey messages, especially to the authorities when people are not happy with their administration. Graffiti is used as a peaceful way of demonstrating. It has been seen to provide people with a platform to participate in public conversation or debate (Morgan & Louis, 2009). They can also be used to communicate messages of road safety and show the commitment of people involved in the art. 3. Improvement of abandoned buildings in the community: Unused buildings and underpasses tend to improve when graffiti are drawn on them. This is achieved when good quality and non-offensive graffiti is used to brighten areas that have not undergone renovation for a long time, thus improving the environment around them (Campbell, 2008). Negative Impacts The following are the negative impacts that have resulted from graffiti: 1. It is expensive: It has proven very difficult to estimate the cost of graffiti in general; however, there are different ways that show that graffiti is expensive to the community. The cost that comes in with cleaning graffiti from the walls is very high (Morgan & Louis, 2009). Thus the community might spend a lot of money that would have been channeled to better projects, in trying to clean the walls when offensive graffiti is used. For example, in big cities such as Toronto, building owners are required to remove all illegal markings on their walls by the law, and this leaves them with no choice but to comply though this is very expensive (Atchison, 2013). Also most of the tax payers’ money has been used to remove tags from the walls of the cities. Another example is in Buffalo, where in 2012 alone, an estimate of $102,000 was used to remove 1900 tags the region (Kwiatkowiski, 2013). 2. Graffiti is one of the major crimes in the community: Graffiti is linked to perpetuation and catalyzation other types of crimes. For example, there have been cases of young people shoplifting graffiti material from stores because they cannot afford them (Morgan & Louis, 2009). 3. Graffiti causes fear to the members of the community: Graffiti has been used especially by racists to victimize the minority in the society, by writing and painting victimizing messages on the walls of buildings. In the year 2003, ENCAMS launched a campaign that was directed towards educating people on the negative impacts of graffiti (Campbell, 2008). 4. It affects tourism in a community: As mentioned earlier, most of the places that have graffiti are considered unsafe. While visiting such areas, most tourists tend to feel unsafe. This in turn affects the community negatively since places such as tourist attraction sites lack a good flow of customers (Campbell, 2008). Meaning of the Graffiti Picture The graffiti picture represents a face of a person with some offensive writing on it. This means that the person is being insulted by unknown people either innocently, or after having wronged them. This graffiti has negative impacts because first, it will victimize the person whose face is represented and he might live in fear. The use of offensive language in this graffiti gives the impression that the owner of the building did not authorize for it to be painted there. Therefore, it will cost the owner of the building a lot of money trying to clean up since this is illegal. For this issue to be solved, the community and those involved in the graffiti culture should raise awareness on the negative impacts of graffiti, and especially graffiti that are offensive in nature. The use of surveillance cameras should be encouraged within the community, so that those who paint such offensive graffiti are put behind bars. Ways through which Municipalities deal with Graffiti in their Town/City The continued display of graffiti especially those that are offensive in nature characterize communities as being lawless. Many municipalities have adopted a policy they term as Zero-tolerance policy. This policy ensures that there is no tolerance when it comes to the arrests and prosecutions of persons involved in the practice of grafting. For example, when Mary Cooke took office in January 2002 in Grand Island, she recalls that there were very many graffiti that had targeted the traffic signs (Kwiatkowski, 2013). The law was very tough and this resulted to four arrests including that of a young man age 19 years, who had done graffiti on a stop sign (Kwiatkowski, 2013). Some municipalities have also advocated for a policy that requires states to remove graffiti within 24 hours. The argument behind his policy is that once a graffiti has been painted, then it should be removed at once and when it is repeated, it is removed once again; this will discourage those who paint or spray the graffiti from painting in particular locations and the trend will follow till the crime is deterred (Kwiatkowiski, 2013). The theory behind this is that graffiti artists will find their work being in vain, and thus they will not do it anymore since they will be assured that the graffiti it is going to be removed. States with serious problems of people marking other people’s walls or buildings without their consent, have passed laws that are very serious and that carry serious penalties. If a property owner finds a person marking his or her wall, the law expects him or her to take a photo of the graffiti and the person marking the graffiti, and use this as evidence to make claims. The offender is then expected to pay a fine of one thousand dollars or spend six months in jail. In some states such as Florida, the offender losses his or her driving license (Tom, 2007). In the past few years, the number of gangs has increased drastically, for example in America. These gangs foster violence and gangster cultures in communities. This creates an environment which is not safe for the members of the community. It is a documented fact that gangs retail drugs brought into various nations by cartels. As a result of such gang activities, police departments are taking measures to prevent any eventualities. In most communities, security has been beefed-up through all day and night police patrolling (Killebrew & Bernal, 2010). Police departments have also implemented the use of vigilantes to give information about the presence and location of particular gangs (Killebrew & Bernal, 2010). Restorative justice is an approach that gives a chance for victims, the offender and the community to be heard and contribute to the settlement of offences. The restorative justice process involves negotiation and dialogue among the community, the victim and the offender; this is aimed at restoration and reconciliation, ultimately bringing harmony. The benefit of this process is that it helps the offender understand the impact of the crime he or she has committed and seek an apology from the victim (s). It also enables the victim and offender to have a conversation so as to restore and reconcile harmony. Restorative justice is used as an alternative for punishment, which the police and the jails seem to perpetuate more, rather than bringing harmony and peace between the parties (Ministry of Justice, 2012). Reference List Atchison, C. (2013, April 8). Art or Crime? Graffiti Pushes Cities to Try New Measures. Retrieved November 19, 2013, from http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/industry-news/property-report/art-or-crime-graffiti-pushes-cities-to-try-new-measures/article10854465/?page=all. Campbell, F. (2008, September). Good Graffiti, Bad Graffiti? A New Approach to an Old Problem. Retrieved November 19, 2013, from http://www2.keepbritaintidy.org/ImgLibrary/graffiti_report_647.pdf. Kellibrew, B. & Bernal, J. (2010, September). Crime Wars: Gangs, Cartel and U.S. National Security. Retrieved November 19, 2013, from http://www.cnas.org/files/documents/publications/CNAS_CrimeWars_KillebrewBernal_3.pdf. Kwiatkowiski, J. (2013, June 30). Graffiti a Costly Problem for City and Suburbs. Retrieved November 19, 2013, from http://www.buffalonews.com/20130630/graffiti_a_costly_problem_for_city_and_suburbs.html Marchesi, M., Saner, J. S. & Wasserfall, I. (2009). FCS Criminal Law L3. Cape Town: Pearson Education South Africa (Pty) Ltd. Ministry of Justice. (2012, November). Restorative Justice Action Plan for the Criminal Justice System. Retrieved November 19, 2013, from https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/217311/restorative-justice-action-plan.pdf. Morgan, A & Louis, E. (2009, December). Key Issues in Graffiti. Retrieved November 19, 2013, from http://www.aic.gov.au/documents/B/9/1/%7BB91B5CC1-5C7D-49E2-8B1E-F42E12F783A6%7Drip06.pdf. South Ayrshire Council. (2013). Graffiti which Benefits the Community. Retrieved November 19, 2013, from http://www.south-ayrshire.gov.uk/news/graffiti-which-benefits-the-community.aspx Tom, J. (2007). What if I Damage someone’s Property? Retrieved November 19, 2013, from http://www.askthejudge.info/what-if-i-damage-property/. Read More