Is Street Art a Crime? An Attempt at Examining Street Art Using Criminology

Zeynep Alpaslan

Department of Sociology, Hacettepe University, Ankara, Turkey.

DOI: 10.4236/aasoci.2012.21007                

Abstract

A clear and basic definition is the fundamental element in understanding, thus explaining any social scientific concept. Street art is a social phenomenon, characterized by its illegal nature, which social scientists from several subjects have increasingly been examining, interpreting and discussing for the past 50 years. Even though the concept itself has been defined much more clearly over the years, its standing concerning whether it is a crime or form of art is still a borderline issue. This paper attempts to first try to define street art under a type of crime, then examine it using criminological perspective, with criminological and deviance theories in order to understand and explain it better using an example, the KüF Project from Ankara Turkey.

Keywords

Street Art; Definition; Criminology; Crime Theory; KÜF Project

Conflicts of Interest

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

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