The academic world has a contradictory view of graffiti as a social phenomena. While it has been studied and written on in some depth, it is still not regarded as a particularly meritous topic of consideration. A search of the Social Science Information Gateway, a database of Sociology articles and research, returns no article hits for "graffiti," vs. 490 hits for "sex."

In an appendix to her master's thesis, Jane Gadsby remarks of the chaotic state of graffiti research. She notes that there is no central approach to the study of graffiti, which is seriously restricting in a topic with such diversity. Gadsby has tried to work towards the resolution of this problem by creating a taxonomy for graffiti. Even her system points at the complexity of the topic due to the fact that her categories can easily result in several different classifications for any one piece of graffiti.

Gadsby's taxonomy also includes a revealing topical analysis of a majority of the writings on graffiti from 1950 onwards. Most of these works approach graffiti with a negative connotation. Of 107 articles, only twelve consider graffiti as having any aesthetic qualities. A similar number discuss means of graffiti prevention.

Graffitic study does not entirely overlook, however, that graffiti has a long and universal history...