Myranda Bregel
Sociology 100
Dr. Loyd Ganey
July 21st 2013 Graffiti, a deviant behavior? When someone walks down an alley way, under a bridge, or by a railway car what are they most likely to see? Graffiti. Graffiti is the deviant act of vandalism; it appears in many places, and in many forms. The artists that create these sometimes beautiful masterpieces are often overlooked, but their murals live on to be seen and added on to day after day. Most people feel that graffiti on any type of property is vandalism. If someone marks up an object it is distasteful and deviant, but sometimes it can be a work of art that gets overlooked. Janice Rahn, author of Painting without Permission also thought this, until she was given a project with her art students to graffiti garbage cans. After she was given this project Janice saw graffiti as artwork. She even took her friends and family around to sites that she found around her city, including an old set of warehouse businesses that had beautiful murals on them. Graffiti can be seen as an act of vandalism when it is used to deface public property. Many gangs like to mark their territory by putting their signs on things like buildings and street signs. When this is done it is not art it is wrong. People who are trying to make art get scorned because of people like this. When I am running I love to stop and look at what people create under bridges. I also like to see what cool works of art are painted on the sides of railroad cars and try to imagine how the artist came to make these beautiful masterpieces. It hurts me to see them being defaced by gang signs. Paul 107 the author of All City, the book about taking up space, was very intrigued by the artists and the way they risked everything to graffiti walls. He spent most of his life finding these artists and figuring out why they did what they do. This book intrigued me because it shows real artists doing what they love and sharing how others who tag things mess it up for them. What interested me the most was finding that the artists just go to a spot and free draw, they do not have a vision in mind before they start. I think this is what makes graffiti so interesting. It is also what makes it deviant. People risk their freedom to show the world what they can do. Graffiti can be seen by everyone, and most people feel that it is a deviant act. This is a hard act for people to see being created though, as most graffiti artists like to work at night when no one is around. Some things that the government does to defer this act; are having people use their community service hours to scrub the walls clean of graffiti that they see. It is hard to say how people react to this type of deviant behavior because, everyone has different opinions on if it is art or if it is vandalism. Sometimes this artwork is vandalism, like when it is used by gangs to mark their territory, or when it is used to make derogatory statements. Graffiti can be a work of art and it can be used to defile public property.

Works Cited
Rahn, Janice. Painting without Permission: Hip-Hop Graffiti Subculture. Westport, Conn: Bergin & Garvey, 2002. eBook Collection (EBSCOhost). Web. 21 July 2013.
Paul 107. All City: The Book About Taking Up Space. Toronto, Ontario: ECW Press, 2002. eBook Collection (EBSCOhost). Web. 21 July 2013