James Duddridge is MP for Rochford & Southend East. He will today be introducing a Bill in the House of Commons that would make it compulsory for people caught creating graffiti to clean it up and meet the victim whose property they have vandalised.
Graffiti is a complex problem, but it goes without saying that we need to find a way to get those who create it to realise the impact that their behaviour has if we’re going to get them to change it.
Some may regard graffiti as art, but that’s not the issue here. Even if graffiti was an elaborate mural that every person who saw it thought was a beautiful piece of work – however unlikely that is, given that we all have different tastes – then if it was created without the permission of the property owner then it’s simply an act of vandalism and a form of criminal damage.
The scale of the problem around the country is huge, both in terms of financial cost and social impact.
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