ABSTRACT

A significant issue that gang injunctions and gang abatement projects attempt to address is graffiti. The term graffiti includes any unauthorized inscription, word, figure, mark, or design that is written, marked, etched, scratched, drawn, or painted on real or personal property. Graffiti is the malicious defacing with graffiti or other inscribed material, and it damages or destroys any real or personal property not owned by the person doing the vandalism. These unauthorized inscriptions or graffiti vandalism is a major problem in many nations, including the United States. Graffiti is often referred to as the newspaper of the streets in the gang and tagger subculture. If that is true, law enforcement officers need to make sure they get the subscription so they can tell what is going on around them.