A young woman who spent time with an Illawarra graffiti gang has revealed what drives vandals to defile property.
The 19-year-old said children as young as 10 were spray-painting tags for a thrill as they had nothing else to do, thought they could get away with it and had no respect for authority.
"They do it because they like the thrill," she said.
"(They know) police can't do anything until they catch them doing it."
This behaviour often led to teenagers becoming involved in gangs and more serious crimes as acts of protest against society, she said.
The woman laid the blame for delinquent behaviour squarely with poor parenting, saying vandals' parents did not know or care where their children were.
She asked not to be identified but said until late last year she associated with vandals who spray-painted tags, although she said she did not vandalise property herself.
"They have a chip on their shoulder from society because their parents don't care," she said.
"If their parents (supervised them) to make them stay home and not go out when they're under age, I don't think they would get in trouble.
"(Vandals) also have a chip on their shoulder with the police."
The northern suburbs teenager said she had witnessed graffiti attacks on property in Thirroul, Corrimal and Wollongong.
She said the vandals she'd seen ranged in age from about 10 to 25.
"They have tagging binges where they use drugs and alcohol and stay out all night and do it, it's like a marathon."
She said the tags were used to identify particular vandals and many taggers began to associate in gangs.
"They use (tags) to identify each other, (to say) a person with that tag has been here." In some cases, vandals sprayed their tag near the scene of another crime they had just committed.
"That's how the police can catch them. They tag near a place where they have broken in."
Many vandals started their criminal careers with tagging, getting their spray paint from older vandals.
"From what I saw, it starts with tagging ... turns to stealing, they get caught and it's an ongoing cycle from there."
Vandals who continued to spray-paint property into their 20s usually graduated to painting murals, she said.
"They usually aren't tagging, usually it's more murals (they paint).
"They're doing murals because there's not enough room on legal walls."
The woman said she had called police on several occasions when she saw people tagging property and was sick of seeing graffiti wherever she went. "I can see how bad it's getting. Every time I walk past something I see a tag on it and I know whose tag it is."
She believed the solution was making vandals clean up after themselves rather than being given good behaviour bonds or fines which were never paid.
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