The Graffiti Solution

J. Scott Armstrong, University of Pennsylvania

Article comments

Postprint version. Published in Wharton Magazine, Winter 1978, pages 12-14.

Abstract

Graffiti is regarded by many as a blight on our cities because it contributes to visual pollution. City governments spend vast sums in an effort to clean the ubiquitous graffiti from urban walls. I suggest that the "cleansing strategy" is an expensive, ineffective way of dealing with the problem; well-known management techniques can solve the problem more efficiently.