The social construction of deviant behavior in homeless and runaway youth: Implications for practice (original) (raw)
Related papers
Deviant Behavior and Victimization Among Homeless and Runaway Adolescents
Journal of Interpersonal Violence, 2001
This study used a high-risk population of runaway and homeless adolescents to investigate the effects of history of caretaker abuse and deviant subsistence strategies on victimization among adolescents. Based on a multisite sample of 974 homeless and runaway adolescents, logistic regression models were used first to examine factors predicting involvement in sexual and nonsexual deviant subsistence strategies and then to investigate the effects of deviant subsistence strategies on physical and sexual victimization when adolescents were on the streets. Results indicated that when controlling for all other factors, including histories of physical and sexual maltreatment in families of origin, street behaviors, sexual orientation, and informal support systems, engaging in nonsexual deviant subsistence strategies increased the likelihood of physical victimization more than two times. Engaging in sexual deviant subsistence strategies increased the likelihood of sexual victimization almost four times. The results are interpreted in terms of life course developmental theory and lifestyle exposure theories.
Journal of Interpersonal Violence, 2007
This study examines the effects of childhood-onset conduct disorder on later antisocial behavior and street victimization among a group of homeless and runaway adolescents. Four hundred twenty-eight homeless and runaway youth were interviewed directly on the streets and in shelters from four Midwestern states. Key findings include the following. First, compared with those who exhibit adolescent-onset conduct disorder, youth with childhood onset are more likely to engage in a series of antisocial behaviors such as use of sexual and nonsexual survival strategies. Second, youth with childhood-onset conduct disorder are more likely to experience violent victimization; this association, however, is mostly through an intervening process such as engagement in deviant survival strategies.
Understanding developmental pathways of runaway and homeless youth
PsycCRITIQUES, 2002
Reviews Whitbeck and Hoyt's "Nowhere to Grow: Homeless and Runaway Adolescents and their Families" (see record 1999-02882-000). In their book, Whitbeck and Hoyt present the results of their multisite, multistate study of youth homelessness in the Midwest. The purpose of this book is to not only present the research findings, but also to examine the findings within a life course development theoretical framework. The authors propose a risk-amplification model of development that explains risk factors associated with precocious independence among this population. The book also explores the family and social lives of homeless and runaway adolescents, as well the experiences such adolescents face. The authors conclude that only future longitudinal research into factors associated with successful transition into adulthood will provide the information necessary for a more complete understanding of the entire developmental process of runaway youth, both in terms of resiliency and development of adult antisocial behavior.
An Examination of Criminal Behavior among the Homeless
1985
Homelessness is a significant social problem in the United States, with an estimated 2.5 million homeless people in this country today. While criminal activity may become a means for the homeless to obtain resources needed for basic sprvival, little is known about the lev.:1 of criminal activity among the homeless or about the types of crimnal activity in which the homeless engage. Although there are many ways in which the criminal behavior of the homeless may be assessed, cacr has its own methodological problems. Existing research indicates tnat substantial numbers of the homeless have a history of involvement in the criminal justice system and that the homeless may be overrepresented among certain identified criminal groups. A study was conducted to gather information through self-report and from archival data on a sample of 125 homeless shelter users concerning both their criminal history and their current illegal activity. Interview data were gathered on prior arrests, incarceration history, illegal drug use, and current illegal sources of support. The results revealed a wide range of past and current criminal behavior: as many as 62.4% of the subjects had been arrested for illegal behavior, or admitted to earning current illegal income, and 44.3% of male respondents had a history of incarceration in jail or prison. Criminal behavior appeared to serve various functions among the homeless, and the homeless who engaged in illegal behavior can be classified as chronic criminals, supplemental criminals, criminals out of necessity, substance abusers, or the mentally ill. While the homeless as a whole engage in relatively high 1..vels of illegal activity, for many this is an adaptive response to dealing with severely limited resources. (NB)
ARRESTS AMONG HOMELESS AND RUNAWAY YOUTHS: THE EFFECTS OF RACE AND GENDER
Journal of Crime and Justice, 2005
This study examined the contributions of race and gender to the likelihood of a first post-run arrest for a more serious and less serious offense in a sample of homeless and runaway youths from four Midwestern states. Event history analysis was used to test the hypothesis that Y o d e r e t a l . i n J o u r n a l o f C r i m e a n d J u s t i C e 2 8 ( 2 0 0 5 ) 36 race and gender would interact so that the likelihood of a first post-run arrest for a more serious and less serious offense would be highest for non-white males and non-white females, respectively. Potentially confounding factors-deviant subsistence strategies, substance use, gang involvement and membership, prior arrests, age, prior physical abuse, age on own, and spending time on the street-were controlled in the analyses. The hypotheses regarding the interaction of race and gender were not supported by the data. Non-whites were more likely than whites, and males were more likely than females, to be arrested for a more serious offense, and white females were more likely than non-white females to be arrested for a less serious offense.
Community Mental Health Journal, 2014
Homeless youth are at increased risk for involvement in the criminal justice system. This study investigated childhood trauma as a risk factor for arrest or jail among a sample of youth seeking services at drop in, shelter, and transitional housing settings, while controlling for more established risk factors including: substance use, peer deviance, and engagement in survival behaviors. Standardized and researcher developed measures collected quantitative data through face-to-face interviews with youth (N = 202). Two sequential logic regression models identified significant predictors of arrest and jail, with a particular interest in the effects of childhood maltreatment. Youth with a history of physical abuse were nearly twice as likely to be arrested and to be jailed compared to nonabused youth, controlling for the significant influence of drug use and survival behaviors. These findings suggest the need for trauma screening and trauma-informed services for homeless youth at risk of illegal behavior.
On Their Own: Runaway and Homeless Youth and Programs that Serve Them
1991
This monograph discusses runaway and homeless youth and the programs that serve them in seven large and medium-sized cities throughout the United States. The monograph focuses on the characteristics and service needs of these youths and the demands they pose for service providers. It examines how the population and the service environment have changed since passage of the Runaway and Homeless Youth Act of 1974 and whether public policies and practic have kept pace with these changes. It looks at social and practice issues confronting providers and policymakers and highlights viable strategies that have been developed by programs to serve this population of youth effectively. This monograph is based on in-depth examinations of programs in Albuquerque
Children and Youth Services Review, 2017
Runaway and homeless youth (RHY) are young people between 13 and 24 years of age who have run away from or been forced to leave their homes, who reside without parental/guardian supervision in temporary situations, places not intended for habitation, or emergency shelters (Whitbeck, Hoyt, & Bao, 2000). Although precise figures are lacking, as many as 2.8 million youth are estimated to be homeless in the U.S. each year (Cooper, 2006; National Alliance to End Homelessness, 2012). Many of these young people return home within a week, but a substantial proportion remain out-of-home for substantial periods of time, or even permanently (Tevendale, Comulada, & Lightfoot, 2011). It is well documented that RHY experience high rates of physical, emotional, and sexual abuse, as well as neglect, other traumas, and chronic stress throughout their lifespans. However, they have only minimal involvement in the systems and settings that typically foster and protect young people, such as supportive families, pro-social peers, safe communities, and schools (Bao, Whitbeck, & Hoyt, 2000; Gwadz et al., 2009; Gwadz, Nish, Leonard, & Strauss, 2007). As a result, RHY evidence high rates of serious relational, mental health, physical health, psychosocial, and behavioral problems. These problems, in turn, place them at grave risk for adverse long-term outcomes, including chronic unemployment, entrenchment in the street economy (e.g., drug dealing, transactional sex/being trafficked), hazardous substance use, incarceration, adult homelessness, unstable relationships, poor health, and even early mortality (Cleverley & Kidd, 2011; Gwadz et al., 2010; Tucker, Edelen, Ellickson, & Klein, 2011). African American/Black and Hispanic young people, those with lesbian, gay, bisexual, and other non-heterosexual sexual orientations, and individuals with transgender gender identities are over-represented among RHY compared to the general population (Cochran, Stewart, Ginzler, & Cauce, 2002; Keuroghlian, Shtasel, & Bassuk, 2014). These minority group statuses influence youths' patterns of risk, in part due to aspects of the larger environment, such as youth from these minority groups facing a greater likelihood of being stopped by police among compared to their White, heterosexual, and/or gender normative peers (Himmelstein & Children and Youth Services Review 73 (2017) 398-410