Tagging and Graffiti - Victoria University of Wellington

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Tagging and Graffiti: attitudes and experiences of New Zealanders per cent) of young people in New Zealand never offend. Of the 25 per cent of young men who do, 80 per cent offend only once and the remaining 20 per cent tend to commit a large number of crimes over a period of years (Moffit 1993). These statistics highlight two categories that are commonly used to refer to young offenders; persisters and desisters (Moffit, 1996). Desisters commit at least one crime but tend to start later in adolescence, after the age of 13. They then stop offending by ages 24-28. Desisters show only two risk factors – substance use and mixing with anti-social peers. 3 Persisters, in contrast, start offending early, before the age of 14 and as early as age 10, offend at a high rate, and persist until well into adulthood. Additionally they exhibit a wider range of risk factors than desisters. Moffit (1996) argued that ‘desisters’ could also be termed ‘adolescent limited’ offenders who start and end their criminal careers relatively abruptly. They may also behave antisocially in some environments but not in all: for example, with friends but not in school. For this reason there may be disagreement between parents, teachers and the young people themselves about the extent of their criminal behaviour. For most youth offenders, growing up is the single most important factor that affects their move towards desistance. However, in terms of graffiti, the wide age range of respondents (from ‘under 14’ years to ‘over 40’ years) suggests that this ‘offence’ for some graffiti writers is not adolescent limited. In addition, the commitment of many graffiti writers to this form of creative expression (as noted by Ferrell, 1993) suggests that they will not desist as they get older. 3 There are many risk factors associated with youth offending; inadequate parenting, child abuse/maltreatment, family disruption, poor parental supervision, parent and sibling criminality, teenage parents, unstable living conditions, effects of economic disadvantage (Arthur, 2006; 9). 20
Tagging and Graffiti: attitudes and experiences of New Zealanders Policy developments Graffiti vandalism has come to the fore in recent years in New Zealand as a result of several high profile events (Dominion Post, 2007; City Independent, 2009). Auckland businessman Bruce Emery’s stabbing to death of 15 year old tagger Pihema Cameron polarised attention on the issue of graffiti (Koubaridis, Vass et al., 2008). Other media attention has highlighted the work of Judge Tony Adeane in jailing a series of recidivist taggers in Napier in recent years (Dominion Post, 2007). The Ministry of Justice implemented Stop Tagging Our Place (STOP) strategy in 2007 to help local government, non-Government agencies (NGOs) and regional authorities deal with graffiti and tagging. STOP (Ministry of Justice, 2008b) aims to prevent, manage and enforce action to reduce graffiti via community engagement and ownership of the problem. The strategy guides local government to facilitate reduction measures and actively enforce new and existing legal frameworks to address graffiti. STOP (Ministry of Justice, 2008b) supports the use of CPTED principles. CPTED draws on Jeffery’s (1971) work on the prevention of criminal activity via means of urban design, for example open plan housing developments with well lit walkways and paths, plus the removal of isolated or obscured areas where crime could occur (Jeffery, 1971; Wortley and Mazerolle, 2008). In order to assist with implementing the recommendations in STOP, a funding grant programme was established (Ministry of Justice, 2008). The Graffiti vandalism prevention grant fund application guidelines 2008/09 has a oneoff grant of $5,000 to $30,000 with the same dollar value being available for longer term projects running for up to two years (Ministry of Justice, 2008a). A strong emphasis in policy efforts towards the long term reduction in graffiti appears to be community engagement and civic pride (Ministry of Justice and Local Government New Zealand, 2006). This has been seen in Hastings District Council (HDC) and Keep Hastings Beautiful Trust’s (KHBT) work with residents in the Hastings suburb of Camberley (J. Barnes, personal communication, May 11, 2009). By involving residents in a community cleanup, they begin to take ownership of the problem and thus help to prevent graffiti reoccurring. Camberley’s shops had been a regular target of taggers but with the help of a local artist the residents cleaned up the area and painted a mural. Several local schools have also seen a clean-up and mural programme being effective in reducing graffiti. Other initiatives in Hastings include the Chesterhope bridge’s ‘paint out’ day, where police and KHBT supervised a group of serious graffiti and tagging offenders to tidy up the area. Then each person was allowed to paint one support wall of the bridge. Since that event in September 2008 there has only been one minor incident of tagging in what was previously a regular target for graffiti (J. Barnes, personal communication, May 11, 2009). 21
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