Becoming Defensible Data: The Ontological History of Graffiti In Criminology Research

• In Event: Testing Key Theories and Concepts: New Strategies and Long-Standing Challenges

Abstract

Graffiti has long served as evidence in social science research. Historians, archaeologists, sociologists, psychologists, criminologists and even sexologists are among those who have selected ‘graffiti’ as a cultural artifact that says something about human behavior. This paper explores the process through which graffiti has come to be accepted as valid evidence in social science research. ,I identify some of the vocabulary of motives that were key to this institutional process. Furthermore I draw upon this historical context to discuss how contemporary criminology research frames some kinds of graffiti as 'defensible' data, and renders other kinds as ‘less valid. It is this point that I invite contemporary criminologists interested in graffiti research to reflect upon.

Author

• Deborah Landry, University of Ottawa