Crimes of Style

by Ferrell, Jeff

• ISBN13: 9781555532765
• ISBN10: 1555532764
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1996-07-03
• Publisher: Northeastern Univ Pr

Summary

Jeff Ferrell draws on his own extensive field research to thoroughly examine the practices of graffiti artists. Focusing on the city of Denver, he takes a close look at the war against graffiti and the interplay between cultural innovation and institutionalized intolerance, arguing that coordinated corporate and political campaigns to suppress and criminalize graffiti writers further disenfranchises the young, the poor, and people of color.

Table of Contents

Series Preface
Acknowledgments
Introduction	p. 3
Denver Graffiti and the Syndicate Scene	p. 21
Denver Graffiti and the Syndicate Scene: A Cultural History	p. 30
Social and Aesthetic Resources	p. 37
Subcultural Dynamics	p. 49
Doing Graffiti	p. 57
Elements of Style	p. 58
Tags	p. 58
Paint, Markers, Bags, and Pockets	p. 63
Piecebooks	p. 68
Writing Graffiti	p. 70
Tagging	p. 70
Piecing	p. 76
Throwing Up	p. 83
Biting	p. 85
Going Over	p. 87
Dissin'	p. 90
Signpainting	p. 92
Drinking, Smoking, and Huffing: A Footnote	p. 94
The Clampdown: Graffiti as Crime	p. 101
Moral Entrepreneurs and Moral Enterprise: The Denver Anti-Graffiti Campaign	p. 106
Strategies of Enforcement and Control: The Clampdown	p. 117
Image and Ideology in the Criminalizaton of Graffiti	p. 133
Unintended Consequences: The Amplification of Crime	p. 146
Crimes of Style	p. 159
Crimes of Style: Graffiti Writing	p. 166
Crimes of Style: The Aesthetics of Authority	p. 178
Graffiti Writing and Anarchist Criminology	p. 186
References	p. 209
Index	p. 229
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