vandalism breaks community

vandalism breaks community

Abby Gutierrez, Editor In Chief

The act of vandalism can pose as a serious threat of danger and offense to anyone and any community. The action is important to talk about in order to learn and teach others to avoid negatively affecting others lives. Vandalism can become costly to families and communities, it encourages unacceptable behavior, and affects a person’s quality of life.

Vandalism is defined as, “Any act of deliberate and intentional damage to any one person’s personal property.” This includes the destruction of windows, house features, vehicles, and graffiti. This being said, not only is this act not a positive action and doesn’t promote the well-being of others, but it also won’t be justified.

One negative effect that vandalism provides is the costly price it takes to repair the damages made to the property, and the dent that it puts on a family or community’s financial expenses. In many cases, families don’t find the people who have vandalized their property and end up having to pay for repairs that the criminals have made. Costs are high and many people don’t have the extra amount of money they need to repair the damages in their financial accounts and can’t afford to pay. This creates stress and unnecessary worrying over a problem that shouldn’t have occurred in the first place.

Another effect of vandalism is the promotion and encouragement of poor behavior in many people. A reasonable amount of the people who commit these crimes are teenagers and young adults. Unfortunately, through the involvement in vandalism, this can lead to the participation in other, and most times, worse acts of violence and crimeful behavior. Young adults will tend to continue to act out and hurt others intentionally. Vandalism tells teens that it’s okay to act however they want without any boundaries, rules, and discipline.  

Lastly, the crime of vandalism is proven to negatively affect a person’s quality of life. Whether the person has become overwhelmed in financial debt or a person’s tolerance for crime increases, the person who has committed the crime will not only change their life but will change others lives as well, and it won’t be for the better. This person may change their way of thinking and damage their morals and hope for life goals. They may also affect other people’s dream by taking away what they hope for themselves in the future.

Overall, the action of vandalism should never be tolerated, and there should be progress on making sure crimes like those never happen to anyone. By taking part in those crimes, the criminal is not only hurting themselves but they’re hurting others as well.