Tagging and Graffiti - Victoria University of Wellington

Tagging and Graffiti: attitudes and experiences of New Zealanders
Without graffiti there would be no glittering bright spots in our decaying trash riddin
inner cities. The colours can inspire a little happiness to the darkest of places.(Online
survey respondent)
Cos they think the city is ugly. They want to make it beautiful by writing their
name all over it. Colourful. (Focus group participant)
Creative expression, expressing sentiments, and sharing opinions were reasons highlighted by
the online survey respondents for doing graffiti writing..
I find it an easy way to express how I am feeling about current economic time and
the current government. (Online survey respondent)
Why stop expressing myself I do it to share an opinion or art, not to destroy.
(Online survey respondent)
Comments like those above also clearly highlight the divisions between different types of
graffiti and those who engage in these kinds of activities. As with many criminological issues,
graffiti writers are a diverse population and there is no simple ‘one size fits all’ solution to the
perceived problems surrounding graffiti.
While Māori and Pacific respondents were also more likely to report ‘creative expression’ as
the main reason for their participation in graffiti, they were more likely than other ethnic
groups to report that their involvement was attributable to being ‘part of a group culture’ and
the desire to ‘get my name up’.
Respondents also referred to the informal rules surrounding the location of graffiti writing and
noted that some venues were strictly prohibited for ‘genuine’ graffiti writers. Those who
broke these informal rules were seen as engaging in vandalism and highly disapproved of.
One focus group participant summarised the informal criteria surrounding the location of
graffiti thus:
There are rules, you know, even the graffiti guys have rules – so when someone
breaks them it’s the pits. You know, the OG writers don’t tag churches or private
property, schools. But people break those rules, most of the time it’s just hooligans.
Those who were more engaged in graffiti were more likely to report that they would
participate in future graffiti activity. Table 9 shows that more than two-thirds of that group
would participate in future, compared to 26.9 per cent of those who reported that they had
‘sometimes’ written graffiti. That past performance might be a guide to future activity is
further suggested by the finding that 44.8 per cent of those who had sometimes participated
in graffiti answered that they might write again in future.
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