[FairHamilton]

Originally Posted by BrianE

Very interesting. I did not know this.

This seems to be a little peak at vandalism psycology. Could it be that most vandals feel guilty about their work if it can be shown to them that someone actualy cares about the property they deface? Maybe they eventualy stop tagging property that has been cared for because it removes the rationalization in their minds that "It's ok if I spray paint here because nobody cares anyways."

Or are most taggers simply lazy and don't want to keep redoing work over and over again. Its just not as fun if someone keeps coving up their hard work.

Very interesting.

I think it ties/relates closely to the Broken Window Theory.

Originally Posted by Wikipedia

"Broken Windows" by James Q. Wilson and George L. Kelling, which appeared in the March 1982 edition of The Atlantic Monthly.[2] The title comes from the following example:

"Consider a building with a few broken windows. If the windows are not repaired, the tendency is for vandals to break a few more windows. Eventually, they may even break into the building, and if it's unoccupied, perhaps become squatters or light fires inside.
Or consider a sidewalk. Some litter accumulates. Soon, more litter accumulates. Eventually, people even start leaving bags of trash from take-out restaurants there or breaking into cars."
A successful strategy for preventing vandalism, say the book's authors, is to fix the problems when they are small. Repair the broken windows within a short time, say, a day or a week, and the tendency is that vandals are much less likely to break more windows or do further damage. Clean up the sidewalk every day, and the tendency is for litter not to accumulate (or for the rate of littering to be much less). Problems do not escalate and thus respectable residents do not flee a neighborhood.

The theory thus makes two major claims: that further petty crime and low-level anti-social behavior will be deterred, and that major crime will, as a result, be prevented. Criticism of the theory has tended to focus only on the latter claim.