Why Study Vandalism?

Abstract

A major part of my early preparation for the writing of this book involved a broad and deep literature search on the topic of vandalism. Several databases were searched, including education, psychology, criminology, environmental science, sociology, and more. These searches went back 20 years. The product of this energetic effort was curious. While the total number of relevant articles, books, dissertations, and commentaries was large, their appearance by year departed substantially from my initial expectations. As described later in this book, because the problem of vandalism seems to have grown and even accelerated over this 20-year span, I thought there would be a corresponding increase in writings about it. Examination of the collected references, however, revealed a steady buildup through the late 1960s and the 1970s that was not followed in the 1981–1983 period by a continued increase, or a leveling off, or even a steady decline. Instead, theoretical, research, and speculative writing about the nature of vandalism and its reduction virtually ceased in these several bodies of literature in the early 1980s!