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Anti-graffiti Education and Diversionary Initiatives

A number of education and diversionary initiatives are in place to help raise young people's awareness of the impacts of graffiti on communities and individuals (including graffiti offenders) and to divert low-risk offenders from the justice system.

Victoria Police crime statistics for 2006–07 show that almost 80 per cent of all alleged graffiti offenders were under 19 years of age, and almost 30 per cent of all alleged offenders were less than 14 years of age.

Research indicates that graffiti offending is evolutionary in nature, with offenders following a developmental cycle that commences with tagging in early adolescence and moves into graffiti pieces in the late teens through to late twenties.

Education and diversionary initiatives aim to break the cycle and reduce the number of minors who become actively engaged in the graffiti subculture and then progress to more significant graffiti offending behaviour.

Anti-graffiti education

Local councils and police develop and deliver anti-graffiti education programs, which are often targeted at late primary school and early high school students.

In some instances, local councils and police use young people to develop anti-graffiti education programs to help ensure that they address the issues in ways that engage young people.

These education programs are targeted at young people who often have little or no understanding of the consequences of graffiti - that it constitutes criminal damage and it is a serious crime. The programs usually include a range of media formats.

The programs educate young people on the legal consequences they may face as graffiti offenders and the issues that surround offending behaviour such as the effect on their families and the local community. 

Diversionary initiatives

In the case of young people caught breaking the law, a formal caution may be administered to the young offender by a senior police officer in the presence of a parent or guardian. After a caution, no further action is taken by the police in respect of the offence. This option is used where the person is a first-time offender and it is considered they are unlikely to re-offend.

Youth Justice Units (see right-hand menus for link) aim to minimise the intrusion of young people into the youth justice system by diverting them from custodial detention to community-based alternatives. This involves maintaining young people in the community within structured and supportive programs and minimising the likelihood of deeper involvement in, and identification with, the criminal system.

The Criminal Justice Diversion Program offers mainly first-time offenders with the opportunity to avoid a criminal record by abiding by conditions that will benefit the offender and the community. A magistrate may place an offender on a community-based order that requires the performance of community work.

The State Government's Community Correctional Services Graffiti Removal Program allows low-risk offenders on community-based orders to clean-up graffiti in local neighbourhoods. See Graffiti Removal Information in the right-hand menus for further information.