 Railway bridges and stations are favourites with taggers |
Is jail the best way to deal with young people who scrawl their names over property, costing the UK millions of pounds in clean-up costs a year?
One judge in Manchester thought so - on Thursday he sentenced two young men to 10 months' youth detention for spraying their signatures, or "tags", onto trains and bridges. He said he hoped it would deter others.
The BBC News website went to one of London's graffiti hotspots to see if people thought it was so serious a crime that it merits a custodial sentence.
The Westway flyover, which stretches for miles over west London, has long attracted graffiti artists and taggers.
 |  If someone who scrawls their name on walls is sent to prison with bank robbers and murderers, they're going to come out doing much worse things than tagging |
Colourful artwork festoons the grey concrete arches supporting the dual carriageway and along the neighbouring underground railway track.
In some parts, local authorities and building owners have worked with graffiti artists, commissioning works and encouraging what many admire as a vital urban art form.
Less admired are the ubiquitous and uninvited taggers, who have left their mark on almost every lamp-post, doorway, pillar, shop front and wall in some areas as well as etching their names into bus shelters and train windows.
The Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea says it removed graffiti covering 50,000 square foot - the equivalent of 45 full-size football pitches - on private property alone in 2003-4.
It sees graffiti as an "enviro-crime", which, along with fly-posting, litter and dumped cars, blights its neighbourhoods and can pre-empt spiralling crime and anti-social behaviour.
The cost of cleaning up graffiti across London each year is estimated at �100m.
But in trendy Ladbroke Grove, by the famous Portobello Market, most passers-by saw a clear distinction between genuine street art and messy tagging.
 Tags are often scrawled over other graffiti |
Few thought taggers deserved to be locked up.
Yuri Cardenas, 38, of west London, said it would be better to force offenders to clean up the mess they had made.
He said: "I believe it has to be punished in some way but jail is too harsh."
Nardos Michael, 17, and her friend Ferewaini Habton, 16, said tagging was "stupid", adding: "There's just no need."
But they said locking people up for graffiti was "heavy-handed".
Nardos said: "I think community service would be more appropriate. They could make them clean it up themselves."
Social worker Ines Berg, 34, said she did not see most graffiti as a problem.
She said: "I think the kids should be given more space where they can do something productive with it. It's great. Why shouldn't the place be colourful?
"If this happened, I think a lot of this silly nuisance stuff would stop."
| I just don't notice the tagging, I don't care about it and I don't see why people make such as fuss |
Portobello resident Rachel Collingwood, 39, agreed.
She said: "I like graffiti. I think most people do. I'm just not so mad about it when they write their names over my front door.
"It's grim enough looking at all these grey buildings, especially under the Westway, so let's have a bit of colour - just not on my door please."
Rudy Gad, 37, said the authorities should find out what young people were interested in and provide more activities for them to distract them from nuisance behaviour such as tagging.
"When graffiti originally came out in my school days in '84 or '85 it was done as an art form. But the authorities tried to suppress it.
"Tagging is just done by bored children. If they like art so much then send them on a course for artwork rather than sending them to jail.
 Does graffiti brighten up the urban landscape? |
"If someone who scrawls their name on walls is sent to prison with bank robbers and murderers, they're going to come out doing much worse things than tagging.
"A 12-month community service order scrubbing off tags would be better."
Patricia Roche, 59, of central London, said the idea of custody for graffiti was "dreadful".
She added: "I like graffiti if it's done well. I don't see anything wrong with it. It brightens up the day sometimes.
"I just don't notice the tagging, I don't care about it and I don't see why people make such as fuss."
Your comments
Graffiti is a valid artform, and often brightens up dull, lifeless concrete expanses that should never have received planning permission. The bulk of tagging, however, is a pathetic attempt by those with no artistic ability to emulate graffiti art. A simple law change could be implemented: tagging with one colour should be illegal (that would cut out 95% of artless tagging. Graffiti on plain concrete should be allowed, but not on brick or stone walls, which are pleasing to look at in their own right.
Dan Williams, Reading, UK
I have had to arrange its costly removal from my property. Money I could spend on better things. It's a social crime against us all. Yes prison in extreme cases, large fines in all others. If they want to tag do it to their own property.
Mike Newson, Bristol.
With all the mess and corruption that goes on in the world how is graffiti such a cause for social concern? Granted, mindless vandalism is one thing, but to ignore the creativity of culture is also. If something is branded socially immoral, I think that it just makes it more appealing. Like the 'Explicit Lyrics' motif on CD's.
Placey, Macclesfied, UK
| The law the law and any such deviant behaviour should be dealt with accordingly with no exceptions |
Of course they should be jailed. As with anything in life, if you don't own it, don't abuse it. I have no problem with art of any description, but it should be done on or in private property. If you don't own the property, permission should be sought. If not, you are clearly breaking the law and should be punished accordingly. If we excuse this because it 'looks nice' where do we end? It is quite simple really, the law is the law and any such deviant behaviour should be dealt with accordingly with no exceptions!
Karen Smith, London, UK Has anyone noticed that trains, buses, taxi, etc are all covered in adverts? Why is it ok for MegaCorp to plaster its brand everywhere but it's illegal for an individual to spray/scrawl/etch their equivalent tag? Companies are given carte blanche to put their brands all over the place all in the name of money.
Julian, London, UK
Graffiti is an art form - tagging is not, and there's a big difference. Tagging is the use of pen and paint to scrawl the tagger's "name" on anything and everything to mark territory. If the authorities do ever catch these prolific taggers then they should certainly be locked up - they're a menace to society and cost the taxpayer (i.e. ME!) sometimes tens of thousands of pounds. Lock 'em up.
J Wooton, Reading, UK
Until you have had your own property tagged (as I have), you have no understanding of how depressing it is to have to remove it or live with it. This is criminal damage and criminal damage is an offence under the law. It is also not generally for 'art's sake' but an attempt at tribal boundary-marking by inarticulate vandals.
Jill, Brentwood, England
| Jail might be the easy solution, but surely there are better ideas and schemes which can be used |
Isn't it time that our society realised that sending everyone to jail for the most minor misdemeanour is storing up trouble for the future? Sending someone to jail for vandalism seems a tad harsh to me. Punishment has to fit the crime. Jail might be the easy solution, but surely there are better ideas and schemes which can be used.
Don, Dublin, Ireland It really does make my blood boil when people suggest that 'tagging' brightens up a grim, grey street. How much improvement can you get by having an illegible scribble in black spray paint on the shutters of a shop? Whatever next, OBEs for fly-posters?
Bubble, Croydon
People who damage or destroy property that doesn't belong to them should know that they might face jail, whether they're using a spray can or some other method to inflict the damage. It might be more useful to society if they were instead made to clean up the mess at their own cost (in both time and money,) though.
Helen, Chelmsford, England
Tagging is rubbish, but real graffiti can be beautiful. I see tagging as one of those antisocial things like litter and dog-poo on the streets, but it does not warrant prison. That is insane. I reckon it sparks up such vitriol because it is about expressing freedom, ruining the clean walls of others (at cost and inconvenience) and inducing fear of a spooky criminal presence. PS. Always remember that concrete is ugly.
Benn, Brighton, UK
I travel on the train daily and I pay a lot of money for my ticket. Why should some mindless thugs who do this get away with it? Graffiti is the thin end of the wedge, it promotes fear, makes everything less attractive to business and tourists and costs a fortune to clear up. As well as locking the offenders up they should be made to clean up the mess or sweep the streets for three months. That would cut the re-offending rate!
Tom Jones, Uxbridge, Middx, England
| This is an environmental crime and should be treated as such |
The only way tagging may be described as an art form would be if it was done on authorised piece of material. The majority of tagging in London is done on private and public property at the expense of the local councils and taxpayers. I have lost count of the number of times that the wall outside my son's nursery has been repainted by our local council only to be covered the next day with new 'tags', foul language and jokes about repainting the walls. This is an environmental crime and should be treated as such. Let those bleeding heart liberals who believe this is an art form and those who commit the crimes fund the cost and the pain of removing it.
Catherine Lawler, London Tagging is criminal damage and those convicted of it should be sentenced appropriately. Although jail should be reserved for persistent and prolific offenders, young and new offenders should be made to clean up their work and the damage caused by others. Graffiti art isn't to my taste but should be supported to the same extent as other art forms with lottery grants or taxpayers' money as other art forms are. Perhaps there is even a market for this art?
Jim, London
The mindless scrawling of a tag on a bus should invoke a punishment befitting the crime. However if you look at the works done by people such as the rare kind crew in Brighton, sometime proper street art can really be done on a level that people can appreciate. In a world where we all struggle to understand why a sheep in formaldehyde is viewed as "art", should we really be clamping so harshly on people with a genuine appreciated talent?
Jon Klaff, London, England
Most people weren't offended by "old fashioned" graffiti which made a funny comment or was colourful and well designed and limited to a few sites. Tagging is different, it has no artistic qualities and it makes a mess of the environment in which it exists. In our area, you see the same few tags time and time again on any available surface. If left, it gives a message that "anti-social behaviour is tolerated here" and is very soon followed by vandalism, litter etc. People then start to feel unsafe. Old people in particular find graffiti very upsetting. Instead of wasting money sending offenders to prison, why not print their tags on their foreheads using an indelible ink that will take weeks to wash off?
Brett Hindson, Raynes Park, London
No jail sentence - why would the taxpayer have to pay an extra burden for this type of crime. Community service - specifically on graffiti cleanup duty - would be an excellent compromise, although I do appreciate that a clean wall is a blank sheet to vandals. We also have to make the distinction between art and vandalism.
Chris Gray, Crook of Devon, Scotland
There is to me a clear difference between tagging and graffiti. Tagging is art in exactly the same way as mugging is street theatre, and culprits should be forced to clean it up themselves. Proper graffiti, beautiful, vibrant street art, is a different thing altogether- and taggers respect it no more than they do anything else they scrawl over.
Mikey, UK
Graffiti is an eyesore which costs big money to clear up. The punishment should reflect this cost just as surely as if those responsible stole the money. Then there is the harm it does to peoples well being in the built environment. Graffiti makes me feel less safe so the punishment should also reflect this. That said prison might breed hardened criminals so I think something more like 100 hours community service per Graffiti conviction might be better. Simply cleaning up one's own mess is way too easy.
Roger, UK
| Prison is expensive and will not stop tagging |
Has our judges lost it? It costs less to put these taggers into the Hilton Hotel than into prison. Why not just make taggers clean their tags up with community service? Prison is expensive and will not stop tagging.
M Dane, Haverhill If taggers are to be given community service cleaning off graffiti "tags", then there needs to be a lot more publicity of what boring work it is. One important part of punishment is discouraging others, and in the case of graffiti, this is plainly failing.
Simon Richardson, London, UK
Taggers are only doing what they enjoy, there is no in depth reason for it, to them it is art. I think it brightens the city up, instead of seeing a city made of concrete, we get to see and enjoy personal art. To place them with someone who has killed or robbed seems ethically wrong. My advice to everyone is: there's a lot of negativity in this world as it is, leave them alone...it's their passion, how many of you actually made an effort to fulfil yours?
A, London
Britain is not a blank canvas for teenagers to spray over and anyone caught in the act should serve some sort of sentence to compensate everyone else who has to bear the eyesore. I'm pretty sure these taggers would not like someone else's tag dubbed over their front doors, walls and windows so what makes them think the rest of us appreciate their 'so-called' mindless efforts. It's simply showing off.
Rakesh, West Midlands
Taggers know the difference between painting a wall and putting cars and trains out of action. They should have no doubt about the consequence attached to each. If they cannot pay for cleaning up walls that they have defaced with their art form, they could be required to apply their art form to the inside of their own homes in the form of variations on the theme of "I should not tag". By time they had cleaned the place up again they would have lost a lot of their enthusiasm for tagging.
J Westerman, Leeds, UK
While living in Paris, I and some others were invited by the local police to decorate the outside walls of the police station with (well-done) graffiti. The chief of police evidently recognised the value of street art and identified a way to use it to build bridges between the police and the community. Tagging, on the other hand, is mindless vandalism and those who do it should be given community service orders compelling them to clean it up.
John, Leeds, UK
Regardless how pretty some do-gooders may find graffiti the people who spray it on public and private property are ill disciplined, selfish and inadequate. Prison may be a bit OTT but offenders do need to be effectively punished. Maybe if the police were capable of catching them corporal punishment combined with the requirement to clean the mess up might have a deterrent effect. Oh silly me the police appear only to be interested in persecuting the motorist these days.
Bert, Kent
Don't jail them, make them clear up the mess they make. If they're under 16 make their parents/guardians clean up as well.
Doug Ditzel, Croydon, England
Of course graffiti 'artists' shouldn't be jailed - just made to spend a significant part of their lives cleaning up the results of their activities. The work could be funded by a levy on spray paint, which would in turn drive up the cost and reduce the incidence of vandalism. Which makes me wonder: what proportion of this product is ever used for anything except graffiti?
Bradley, London
Tagging is mindless, irritating, potentially destructive and pointless vandalism. Don't see them doing it to their own houses ... just other people's property. Some graffiti is quite good where some mindless advertising is actually enhanced by a satirical comment. But its transient anyway, painting walls is permanent. Painting on top of painting just makes a mess and that's what it ends up looking like. A mess. I agree... don't jail em... get them to clean their mess up.
Rod, Newhaven, UK
| Locking them up will only alienate them further |
Graffiti is a positive form of expression that should be encouraged. What kids need is encouragement to channel that into something more worthwhile, like graffiti in designated spaces. Locking them up will only alienate them further. Do the heads of those promotion companies who plaster our cities with fly posters end up in jail? I think not, yet they're the ones who profit from making an unsightly mess.
Al, Edinburgh Tags are now appearing on people's cars and houses, and a stand has to be taken somewhere. Graffiti costs millions to clear up, money which could be much better spent on public services. And in reply to Rudy Gad's quote, how can you 'scrub off' tags scratched into �45,000-worth of glass?
David B, Kingston, Surrey
The sentence passed for these youths was because they were etching their tags into the train windows - something that has been a growing trend on London transport for the past few years and quite frankly makes the buses and tubes look hideous and feel threatening. It is vandalism, it is illegal and yes, those prosecuted should face a prison sentence. If these people don't want to risk prison don't do it.
Peter Fuller, London, UK
Jail: No. Make the taggers clean up double the area that they tagged, and warn them that if they are caught again then the punishment will be double the area that they cleaned the last time. Also taggers to pay for the cleaning materials themselves.
M Henning, Kilwinning, Scotland Yes. It costs my dept thousands of pounds per year to clear up this urban blight. Critical traffic signs are defaced, street nameplates obliterated, bus shelters covered. At the end of the day the cost of this is borne by the council taxpayer. Not only jail them but also reclaim the cost of repairing their vandalism.
Bill Richardson, Tyne & Wear
I don't believe that 'taggers' should be locked up if 'tagging' plain slabs of concrete, but when they start 'tagging' trains and other property they enter the realms of criminal damage and can cause thousands of pounds worth damages. The people who don't think they should be locked up would soon change their tune if the walked outside to find their car had been 'tagged' I'm sure.
John Mothersdale, Middlesbrough
My neighbour spent all day carefully painting his wall cream. The next day his house and front door was "decorated" with bright pink tags. Rather than jailing the vandals at taxpayers' expense how about giving them corporal punishment? There's no tagging in Singapore!
Peter, Nottingham
I'm very glad your article makes the distinction between graffiti (which in my opinion is art and should be encouraged in certain areas) and tagging (which in my opinion is mindless vandalism with no artistic merit). I agree that being forced to clean up the resultant mess would be a fitting punishment. If any artistic talent could be encouraged that would also be good.
John Pendleton, Lewes, UK
Having spent the last three weeks cleaning graffiti off my property, I believe that the best punishment would be for the graffiti idiots to clean up their own mess at their own expense. It's hard and unpleasant work that I shouldn't have had to do.
Fred, Oxford
On the council estate where I live, almost every bit of wall is written on. I hate this mindless vandalism. It brings a depressing and threatening feel to the area.
Peter Benjamin, Croydon, England
A first or second offence should involve some community service, or even better cleaning the graffiti off. A third offence and I think a custodial sentence should be given
Rod Lora, Wilts
| Give the taggers somewhere to be more creative |
I think it's a wasted talent and by no means should incur a custodial sentence. Give the taggers somewhere to be more creative, hold competitions. I believe graffiti does in fact brighten up the grey concrete urban environment. After all if someone can win the top prize in art using Elephant dung why can't someone win it using spray paint. After all art is all about expressing how you view life and the environment surrounding your life, and not be suppressed by people who are ignorant to this fact, ie government.
M, Jersey, UK
I hate and deplore it. Especially tagging. I pass a thousand examples as I walk to work, I see peoples newly resurfaces homes blighted by spray paint and pen. Do you think that doesn't negatively affect the people that live there? Taggers need to be caught not ignored. They need to understand the damage they do, they need to be made to pay for the damage they do. This is a serious issue; it is worse than noise pollution.
David, Bristol,UK
Jail is a harsh and counter-productive punishment for the spraying of graffiti, but there should be strong measures to prevent and remove it. Not only is it usually very unsightly, but it gives an impression of lawlessness.
Gareth, Spalding, UK
Yes it is a pain to clean up - I let my son do his room in graffiti like decor! But let's not get stupid about it - prison is insane. Let's make the ones who are bad at it do a clean up, but most of it is clever and brightens up really drab grey areas so on balance I am all for it.
Peter, Wareham Dorset
The majority of grafitti is just brainless tagging. It looks a mess, is expensive to clean up, contains no burning social message, and requires only the combination selfishness, stupidity and artistic incompetence to carry out successfully. Anyone caught tagging who is over 18 should be jailed. Younger offenders should not be jailed, but they should be punished.
Phil, London
Tagging is an art form so why should those with the talent to do it be jailed? All they are doing is showcasing there talents in the way its supposed to be seen.
Jean-Claude, London Town
To Jean-Claude of London Town - whilst I agree with you that a great deal of graffiti is done by talented artists it is my experience that most 'taggers' just scrawl something resembling their initials that has no artistic merit whatsoever. In addition they often ruin genuinely artistic work by scrawling their rubbish over the top of it. If tagging is showcasing talent then I guess the spider that just fell in my inkwell has several times the talent these people have since it is at least managing to come up with several different designs!
Dave, UK
If Jean-Claude holds tagging in such high esteem ("an art form"), I suggest he commission these artists at his own expense and on his own premises. Modern art it may be, but quality stuff, an emphatic no. Let them keep their mess to themselves!
William Waller, Brussels
One-Minute World News 
News services
E-mail this to a friend 
Printable version 
