Vandalism is the willful destruction or defacement of public or private property. This includes smashing mailboxes, trashing someone’s property, drawing graffiti on public places, breaking windows, and destroying abandoned buildings. Vandalism costs schools, homeowners, businesses, youth, and others more than $15 billion a year. Vandalism and graffiti are not pranks. They are crimes—costly ones. That is why they are important to your community.
Vandalized, graffiti marked, and messy property generates unease and says to the public that the neighborhood, school, or community is not valued by its residents. Getting rid of vandalism-related damage helps reduce fear, increases public use of the area, restores the appearance of the community, and reassures the victims that people do care about the problem. Quickly removing graffiti from publicly visible spaces is one of the most effective means of discouraging it. Warning: If you are thinking of cleaning up graffiti, be sure to work closely with your local police or sheriff ’s department. Gang graffiti is used to mark turf and to communicate between gangs. This type of graffiti may contain information that is important to police anti-gang efforts. You may need to preserve graffiti for police analysis.
WHAT PARENTS CAN DO
- Educate about the costs of vandalism.
- Sponsor a graffiti paint-out.
- Organize a mural painting project for an area that is repeatedly targeted with graffiti.
- Work with your local law enforcement to start a Neighborhood Watch program.