Pandemic, Routine Activities, and Graffiti in Belo Horizonte: Has Social Isolation Led to City Saturation?

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic triggered a series of social isolation measures that reduced the movement of people in public spaces. This condition created a natural experiment to test the theory of routine activities and its applicability in the study of graffiti. Continuing the monitoring carried out in the hypercenter of Belo Horizonte since 2011, this study assesses the impacts of restrictions on the movement of people on the amount of graffiti found in that location. It starts from the hypothesis that the social restriction measures reduced the number of capable guardians (surveillance), expanding the opportunities for the practice of graffiti tagging and, consequently, favoring its expansion. A survey of existing graffiti in the hypercenter was carried out in 2022, and its results were compared with previous surveys conducted in the study area in 2011, 2015, 2017, and 2019, allowing the hypothesis to be tested.