• "New York City is spending $10 millions a year to clean off the handwriting on the walls…. Mayor John Lindsay announced …… that in spite of the city’s best efforts, 63 per cent of all subway cars, 46 per cent of all buses and 50  per cent of all housing projects are ‘heavily defaced by graffiti.’"(Rosen, J. The Guardian March 29, 1973) 

• "In Chicago,…… officials of the Chicago Transit Authority (CTA) estimated that they would spend up to $1.5 million alone in 1986 to remove graffiti from stations and equipment." (Mazzenga, V. Defaced Stations Get a “Fresh” Look, Chicago Tribute. (Sports Final ed.), Oct. 29, 1986) 

• "The state of California spent more than $50 million in 1989 cleaning up graffiti." (Connelly, M. Cleaning up Their Act: Spray-Paint Vandals Sentenced to Remove Graffiti Under New Court Policy, L.A. Times (Home ed.), April 2, 1989, pt. II, at 3)

• "It was estimated that the state of California would pay two million dollars statewide to clean up graffiti in 1991." (Fiore, F. Taggers Rule: The Unfinished Century Freeway Is One Big Concrete Canvas for Graffiti Writers, L.A. Times (Home ed.) Dec. 6, 1990 at B1, B4. 
• "The California Department of Transportation was expected to spend $28, 000 in 1991 to erase graffiti from signs, wells, and art projects in the San Diego area alone, as compared to the $3000 to $5000 it used to spend per year to clean up the Imperial Riverside-San Diego three county area." (Rodriguez, M, Graffiti, Cleanup Cost on the Rise, L.A. Times (San Diego County ed.), Feb. 22, 1991, at B2.) 

• "The Los Angeles Rapid Transit District alone spent $13 million a year on clean-up, and the California Department of Transportation budgets up to $5 million for 1994" (Ferrell, 195, pg. 78)

Most sates have criminal mischief or malicious mischief statues, include California, New York, Indiana, Kentucky, Washington, Alaska. 

A number of states have specific criminal laws against the destruction of, or damage to, property, include Colorado, California, Wyoming, Texas, and Kentucky, Illinois. 

• Many states have criminal trespass statutes that could be enforced if the graffiti was done on private property, include Colorado, California, Connecticut, Washington, Kentucky, Florida, Illinois. 
• Some cities have adopted their own ordinances to make it lawful to deface property, include Chicago, Boston, Minneapolis, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Washington, Miami.
• In some states, vandalism statutes may be used to prosecute apprehended writers, for example, Illinois.
• Graffiti itself may be illegal in some states, for example, San Diego.
• Curfew: Apprehended youths may be charged criminally with violating curfew (these laws prohibit those under the age of eighteen from being on the street from ten or eleven o’clock in the evening until sunrise, for instance, Long Beach, Los Angeles, Newport Beach, Compton and Carson ). Also, they may be charged with theft of spray paint or markers, or illegal possession of spray paint or markers, for example, Chicago. 

Thus, for instance, the New York Museum of Modern Art has also included photograph documents of graffiti in one of its exhibition, "High and Low: Modern Art and Popular Culture".

Also, a number of famous artists, such as, Andy Warhol, had collaborated with graffiti writers in joint exhibitions and sales of their works.