Street Art Versus Graffiti Tagging

​Graffiti is a gateway crime. Individuals who start breaking minor laws like graffiti and petty theft often end up committing more serious crimes, especially in communities with high amounts of gang activity and graffiti tagging. Graffiti is the "canary in the coal mine" for criminals to test how effective community policing is at preventing criminality. Additionally, Ggraffiti creates a visually blighted environment which sends the message that that crime tolerated which encourages further crime and disorder and discourages home owners and business owners from reinvesting in their community.

Approximately 80% of graffiti is “graffiti tagging”.  Tagging is essentially the street name of a graffiti tagger and is indented to show off to friends. These tags are often small, single color and include the tagger's street nickname. The bigger and more brazen the graffiti tag, the more street credibility the graffiti tagger gets.  The sooner the graffiti tag is removed, the better.  Ideally graffiti tags should be removed with 24 to 48 hours to discourage further graffiti tags.

Approximately 10% of graffiti is gang related, often designed to claim territority for drug sales and other illegal activities from rival gangs. These tags are often black spray paint, have large symbols, and are located on corner buildings. 

The remaining 10% of graffiti are street art.  Street art is not harmful.  Most street art requires skill and is intended to create visual interest on the street.  Street art often takes the form of stickers or small scale murals.  Street art is is typically not found on sensitive private property and is more likely found on public property such as street signs and semi-public property such as newspaper boxes.  

Graffiti tags and gang-graffiti should be removed as quickly as possible.  Street art does not need to be removed.  Clean City Pro graffiti removers are fast and effective graffiti removal tools that can help speed the removal of graffiti tags and gang-graffiti.  Please visit the graffiti removal product selection guide at www.CleanCityPro.com to find the best graffiti remover for your unique graffiti tag.