last year my wife and i rented a campervan in japan
we spent 3 weeks touring the main island of honshu and the smaller island of shikoku

the one thing that stood out... the absence of graffiti
in the entire 20 days, we used their hotbaths and expressway toilets
there were only TWO cases of vandalism
in fact the scratches were so small anyone would have missed them
their public toilets are as clean, if not cleaner than our toilets at home !

now, back home in first world, beautiful australia
developed and advance and gracious
good in processes of law, freedom of speech etc etc

you do not get a prize for guessing what i am about to write

YES...graffiti ALL OVER the place
you can barely find one public toilet not vandalized

anyone care to tell me why?

we are less clean?
we love graffiti?
we are tolerant?
we do not discipline out children and youths for such trifle matters?

There are commonly two types of 'graffiti' that people see in public spaces. One could be called genuine art; the artists are creative and only differ from other artists in the medium them choose, spray cans.

More common and what most of us hate is tagging. Mindless scrawls spray painted or scratched on public and private property.

The simplest way of determining between graffiti and art is permission. Rarely would anyone invite taggers to do their fence but there are public and private buildings that graffiti artists have be commissioned to do a large scale piece.

Taggers are cowardly middle of the night vandals that deserve to be thrown in jail as well as pay compensation if they get caught. Yes, do gooders, I said they should go to jail and be held accountable for their actions.

@hippie

i am referring to the bad guys

the other day i saw a council sign that says

"if vandalism continues, the council will remove the remaining benches and tables from this park"

wow... australia has gone communist
we have decided to go down to the lowest level ... levelling downwards?

has this something to do with our education and the bringing up of our next generation?

platypus1900

largely our young people are taught to loave our history. Strangely enough I suggest it stacks up well against Japan in many if not most cases. It certainly has got a lot to do with education and not lack of funds as is often the rhetoric. It is simply the ideology and idiotic notion that people who have been here for generations stole land. Instead of some sort of balance being taught as well as the fact that every other human wants to come here and live due to the hard work of the pioneers we teach myths. Could you imagine the Japanese reached Australia before the British. I suggest their would be no more first people as we know it.

Street art is worthwhile and should be encouraged. Tagging is an eyesore and should be discouraged. How? That is the $64,000 question. Punitive penalties in themselves seems not to be the answer as the people involved, mostly juveniles, but not all, are acting out of a desire for social recognition from a society which in many ways has failed them. Living in inner Sydney where graffiti is rife I have asked many "kids" why do you do it, and the short answer is, "To piss people off", the catalysis in the first instance might be boredom, but I think the problem goes deeper than simply this, and is more the desire for some perverse recognition from society, than anything else.
In societies where people have gained a feeling of self worth at an early age and respect for themselves and others, this type of graffiti and other antisocial behavior is generally not a problem, the case in question, Japan, is a good example, I have also seen this in a mostly European society as well, the South Island of New Zealand, and other places.

The Hip Hop culture is a major contributor to the negative behaviour of our youth. Graffiti is one of the three foundation tenets of Hip Hop. Taggers get a bit of an adrenalin rush from sneaking around in the night. Some taggers are not actually bad kids, they are just stupidly going along with something they ignorantly think is cool. Once they are caught, in many cases its the first time (and the last) they have been in trouble with the police.

The hard core taggers seek maximum exposure and they don't care what they deface as long as they get their tag up. They will even tag graffiti art walls with no respect for the artist. Hard core taggers are criminal vandals and literally a public menace.

In a professional role I've dealt with a lot of taggers and graffiti artists. In Auckland we used to offer walls for graffiti artists on the basis they sign a pledge not to tag. Its surprising how many refused our offer, seeing it as a sell out. Of the many taggers we caught and successfully fined through the court system, very few paid their fines or even showed remorse. My experience left me with the distinct impression 90% of taggers are misfit idiots that will probably be losers their whole life.

@runner

i agree it is largely due to the lack of education
as a nation, we are VERY poor at educating our children
i have long suspected that even the parents themselves needed education

i love to quote this incident to illustrate how sad a state we are in
this lady brought 3 of her young kids to a souvenir stall at a tourist spot in Queensland
there were some paper bags for sale with these words on it
"For all your Bxxxshit"
this lady demanded to see the stall manager and then gave him a lecture on how the sale of such paper bags in a public space will affect the upbringing of her children

on the way out, i saw this lady smoking while her 3 children were with her at the bench
i went over and told her what a hypocrite she was
she should set a good example as the sale of the paper bags is nothing but humour and the example she set for her children had a life long negative influence, not to mention the harmful second hand smoke

@paul

as i said, as long as permission is sought and owners or councils are agreeable to artform on their walls or benches, no one will object

i know in one of our neighbouring asian state, you get caned for willful extensive gaffiti, as in strokes of the barbaric rotan
as much as the likes of poirot will vehemently disagree, this severe punishment works !
There are hardly any vandalism.

and there are hardly any murders due to the death penalty too
again poirot will say there are still murders there
how naive
of course there will be a handful... such murders will happen whatever the punishment
at least the 90% potential murders were prevented because of the death sentence
and putting to death the convicted murderer will prevent him from committing more murders!
we have seen how convicted criminals in australia often commit repeated offences when they were on parole?

poirotism is a useful example of illogical thinking to avoid

I've got to confess I love graffitti art.
But then I love any form of self-expression
as long as it doesn't hurt or harm anyone else -
and with graffitti - I'm referring to private property.
Which should be a no-go zone.
I know how expensive it is for someone to put up a
new fence - only to find it wrecked by graffitti over-night.

I don't know what the answer is to stop young kids from
damaging private property - because nothing seems to
deter them. I'm not sure if there is some sort of
paint that can be used as a protective base that would
make it easier to clean the graffitti off. Or perhaps
assigning designated spaces especially for graffitti
by local councils. Or making the penalties stronger
for the abusers.

I'll have to do a bit more research on the subject
and see how other countries solve this problem.

I forgot to add that we saw "graffitti art"
in Mexico on sides of buildings which was amazing
and added to appearance of both the buildings
and the neighbourhood. Such art also exists in
designated places around our country.

There are I've been told specially formulated treatments
of surfaces which make the removal of graffitti easier
and are used by some councils to protect significant
buildings. Of course we can't paint the entire suburbia.
Maybe with time it will become mandatory to treat surfaces
on street frontages.

Attempts at banning the sale of spray-paints apparently has
not been very successful.

The fastest and only proven deterrent to tagging is too remove the tag within 24hrs. Don't give up, just keep removing (usually best to paint over) ASAP.

There are anti-graffiti paints but they are very expensive and require a particular complimentary solvent. repainting with the same colour is fast and efficient.

hmmmm.... i can see why there are still so much graffiti in this country

parents who would rather spend time and effort cleaning up the mess than to educate and discipline

There are formerly pristine wildernesses that I liked to visit that are now vandalised with the scratchings, paint and even nailed-on rubbish of attention-seeking ferals who must leave their mark and spoil things for those who follow them.

I would say without any fear of reasonable challenge, that it is the very same ferals who also vandalise by dumping their rubbish, for example by wedging refuse in crannies and filling outback toilets with their rubbish, causing possible withdrawal of the facilities and camping areas by the responsible Councils.

It would be throwing the B.S. javelin a record distance to call 99.99% of urban graffiti art. Most would fail the first test without looking, which is that no self-respecting and community-respecting artist would destroy or deface to make his point. Nor would an artist be selfishly promoting himself and his gang. Since when were artists gang members anyhow? That all goes completely against the grain.

What grubs who vandalise do is put more restrictions on privacy and freedom of movement, as well as causing our taxes to be diverted from much needed services to security, surveillance and repairs. They are losers who are oppositional to authority, reject the opportunities that are available to them and who bite the hand that feeds them. Most likely they are raised in welfare dependent households where education, work and duty are dirty words.

Doubtless the 'Housos' feel obliged to spread their DNA the way they spread their paint. More minimum care 'kids' and the cycle continues.

I was watching the construction of beefed up security to prevent knuckleheads from being killed while tagging a railway bridge. Apparently the ferals don't realise that the wires for electric trains really do carry electricity. The previous not unattractive fencing has been adequate for a hundred years, but now hundreds of thousands of dollars are required to make caging to keep criminal idiots safe.

Pedestrian overpasses are now mesh tunnels to prevent ferals from dropping half bricks on traffic. Is that 'artistic expression' and 'legitimate protest' too?

Hoping that police get dozens of quality drones soon.

Can't stand the stuff.

It is of course down to our bleeding heart magistrates & judges, that this sort of antisocial behaviour grows. No real penalties encourages even more growth of such ferals.

Still I must admit, about half of it is superior to most of the submissions for the Archibald prize.

@atb and Hasbeen

i must say we do share much in common on many of the issues raised thus far

australia will be cleaner, richer and better with less poirotism

Here's something you might enjoy. Taken from
the Sunday Telegraph 1974:

"Guess what's the latest status symbol
among freedom-loving, fair-go-young Australians?
Going on the dole, that's what mate. Some young
blokes who have just finished their Higher School
Certificate examinations are making less than
token efforts to get jobs. Then they show a lot
more energy in dashing off to the dole queue. I
know one young bloke, normally industrious enough,
who went to work for a day, sacked himself and told
his father he would be better off on unemployment relief.
His reason was that 10 of his mates had gone on the dole.
After stern words from his father he starts a new job
tomorrow, in a brewery.

And yet there are those among us who think making them wait 6 months to be eligible for the dole is an outrageous attack on their civil rights.

No one under 21 should be eligible for the dole. Let them work and pay some taxes before they start bludging.

How can anyone expect young people to be
normal, balanced and healthy-minded when
their elders persist in setting them a
less then favourable example to follow
in adult delinquency in so, so many ways,
including - making
weaponry - for the destruction
of their fellows ...

Shocking examples eh, Fox?

Like those Australian volunteers who put their lives on the line liberating Europe and your kin in WW2?

Shocking too when those 'Nullaboring'(sic) Australians who were suffering themselves from the ravages of enormous loss of their best young men in Europe's war and were recovering from conversion of Australia to a war economy that supported Europe, unselfishly gave refuge and support to thousands of displaced peoples who could not hack Europe any more?

Dreadful examples, dreadful modelling you say? An excuse to vandalise public buildings paid for by the very citizens who also pay their keep via Centrelink.

There are so many books written on the topic
of graffitti and one that might be of interest
is the following:

"Uncommissioned art: the A - Z of Australian
graffitti," by Christine Dew. Published by
Melbourne University Press.

It's worth a look at your regional public library.
Plus I'm sure there's heaps more on the subject
in the 751+ numbers section on your library shelves.

Graffitti is an interesting subject that's worth
browsing. Its interesting learning the difference
between street art and graffitti - and also
seeing where some of the graffitti fits
in to the modern world of art, and why.

Cheers.

Here is something to read too:

"Graffiti is one of the most visible forms of crime, defacing both public and private property. It costs the community around $200 million each year and has emerged as a key priority in crime prevention for Australian states and territories. "

http://www.aic.gov.au/crime_types/property%20crime/graffiti.html

To personalise it, our local greengrocer, who sells good produce but has a struggling business anyhow, had 'uncommissioned art', ie graffiti on his white van while it was parked under the building. After a tussle with his insurer he will finally be getting the work done. Direct costs to him are $500 insurance excess and higher premiums. Add the indirect costs of time off and hire of a replacement van while the work is being done.

We need to make a distinction between graffitti
street art, and tagging - which is signature based
graffitti and to which most people do object.
As I suggested earlier - it is best to read more
on the subject. It is a fascinating one.
The following website explains Street Art in
Melbourne and is only one of the websites available
on the subject:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Street_art_in_Melbourne

The distinction that needs to be made is between legal behaviour and vandalism.

Artists have been allowed and may be paid to paint complimentary street/suburb themes on nominated objects. There is no risk whatever that any artist of MERIT is not noticed and commissioned by someone to do work. There is no risk either that any legitimate person would set out to desecrate, destroy and draw attention to himself and his gang.

The remaining 99.9% are destructive, attention-seeking scum who need to be identified, collared and frog-marched into a court for their just desserts.

What I really object to apart from the waste of taxpayers' money on security and repair, is the loss of access, freedom to move and freedom to go about our private business without the hundreds of public and private surveillance cameras that criminals make obligatory in modern times.

Vandalism IS a red flag for generalised anti-social behaviour. It is important that the offenders be reported.

Graffiti vandalism is often the first step to a life of crime. As its carried out in the night opportunities arise to commit other petty crimes, car break-ins, burglary, and onward to worse.

A small known fact is the frightening impact tagging has on some elderly people. Innocent elderly citizens can become afraid to leave their houses after they have been tagged.

Neighbourhoods tagged with graffiti give the subconscious impression the authorities are no longer in control. This has the dual effect of causing people to lose faith in the police and for criminals to become emboldened.

As the Council Officer responsible for creating and implementing the Auckland City Zero Tolerance Graffiti Program I might possibly know more on this topic than 99% of the people in Australia.

We introduced a multifaceted program over 12 years ago that involved free eradication for the public, surveillance and apprehension of graffiti vandals, and an effective education package delivered to primary school children with the aim of stopping them before they start. As mentioned previously we also offered artist the opportunity to do commissioned street art on public and private walls.

As successful as the program is, Auckland still spends over $2 million per annum on eradication.

ConservativeHippie,

You are right of course, it isn't a victimless crime. It is part of an array of tactics that gangs employ to cower citizens, police too they hope, and the aged are soft targets for them.

When arrested, what criminal doesn't claim to be a victim of society? That is the first defence of the gutless criminal, "They made me do it. It is all society's fault".