Pattern: Graffiti
Victims: creating graffiti is an act of vandalism on a property and some graffiti are indicators of gang activity
Perpetrators: mostly male 11-25 years old “taggers” who generally consider themselves urban artists or gang members
Locations: walls, rooftops, commercial building, water towers, trains, highway underpasses and overpasses – anywhere graffiti can be made – sometimes on gang territory housing
Times: from dusk to dawn, graffiti may be produced late at night when taggers can work undiscovered – gang graffiti can be produced more quickly and may be done anytime a site is unattended
Entry/Approach Methods: taggers take risks to make their mark on building, etc and break into building to do their work as well as trespass
Tools: spray paint, chalk, markers, camera to take photos
Vehicles/Transportation Routes: vary
Method: use paint or markers to create images on surfaces
Motive: gang members use graffiti to communicate who may be their next murder victim and who was killed in their gang as well as to mark territory, while other taggers seek to express themselves and be perceived as daring, some graffiti has political purposes (rebellion)
Query terms: spraypaint, spray, backpack, paint, painted, tag, graffiti (and possible misspellings of word), can, mask, etching, stencil, notebook, markers
Suggestions: some agencies have databases for their graffiti, task forces to take photos and use graffiti to understand gang issues, taggers can be prosecuted with good documentation of cost of their vandalism to community, ask officers to use charge of graffiti making in their reports to track this crime
Resources:
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