More handpicked essays just for you.
Sociological issues for youth homelessness
Homelessness and its effect on children
Youth homelessness research paper
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
With No Direction Home: Homeless Youth on the Road and in the Streets is an ethnography which describes the lives of youths living on the streets of New York City. The author attempts to conduct her own research in order to dispute the false impressions that many previous researches have formed about the youths living on the street. The ethnographic method she uses aids her study of the “street kids” in acknowledging the facts behind their choice of lifestyle and their experiences while on the street. Marni Finklestein received her PhD in Anthropology from the New School of Social Research in New York City. She has also managed to organize many other studies based on drugs and substance abuse as well as sexual assaults in the streets of New York City prior to this study. She accomplishes her goals by interviewing the youths and working with them to gain knowledge about their experiences on the streets. She was also keen to how they manage to survive through all the hardships. Although, some of her methods have been used in the past, she incorporates new methods to seek a deeper understanding of the emotions and thoughts of the street youths in addition to providing a glimpse of people adapt to their new life circumstances.
Marni Finklestein received her PhD primarily on her work focusing on “urban populations at risk” (viii, Finklestein, 2005). She completes her research on street kids in her hometown, of New York City, in order to displays her aspiration of attempting to answer the key questions society has about these youths. “What are the processes that lead kids on the street?” (Preface, Finklestein, 2005) and “What do they experience once they are out there?” (Preface, 2005). The author addresses the questions in a s...
... middle of paper ...
...ing personal interaction with many of the youths of various ages, Finklestein is able to obtain accurate findings for her research. Although Finkelstein does not use the best techniques for conducting her research in comparison to Gibson and Bender, she does attain her data while being fairly neutral throughout the research. Also by providing quotations of what the youths say, Finkelstein allows the reader to be a part of the study.
Works Cited
Bender, K. A., Thompson, S. J., Ferguson, K. M., Yoder, J. R., & Kern, L. (2014). Trauma Among Street-Involved Youth. Journal of Emotional and Behavioral Disorders, 22(1), 53-64.
Finkelstein, M. (2005). With no direction home: Homeless youth on the road and in the streets Thomson/Wadsworth.
Gibson E. Kristina (2011). Street kids: Homeless youth, outreach, and policing New York’s streets SAGE Publications.
In Righteous Dopefiend, Bourgois and Schonberg delve into the lives of homeless drug addicts on Edgewater Boulevard in San Francisco. They highlight the moral ambiguity of the gray zone in which these individuals exist and the institutional forces that create and perpetuate their condition. The authors liken the experience of the daily lives of the Edgewater homeless to living in an everyday “state of emergency” (2009:21). Throughout the course of their work, they expose the conditions of extreme poverty that the homeless experience, the institutional indifference towards their suffering and the consequences of their crippling addictions. Bourgois and Schonberg describe the Edgewater homeless as a ‘community of addicted bodies’ driven by a communal need to avoid the agony of heroin withdrawal symptoms and held together through a “moral economy of sharing”. (2009: 6) The “webs of mutual obligation” that form as a result of their participation in this system are key to the survival of the Edgewater homeless as they attempt to live under conditions of desperate poverty and police repression.
Finkelstein, M. (2005). With no direction home: homeless youth on the road and in the streets. Belmont, CA: Thomson/Wadsworth.
Although The McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act is a program that guarantees education for the homeless youth population, many homeless do not receive the proper services they need because they are not aware of available resources (Heinze & Jozefowicz-Simbeni, 2009). Many homeless youths do not have a safe place to stay during the night or do not have any family or friends to rely on for support. In addition, approximately 7% of youth members in the United States are left without a home because of high dependence on an addictive substance or because they have been diagnosed with a mental health disorder (Heinze & Jozefowicz-Simbeni, 2009). Services that could provide shelter for the youth are often underused. Research in homeless youth
Gwinnett County Public School (2010, June). Education for Homeless Children and Youth. Retrieved February 4, 2014, from http://www.gwinnett.k12.ga.us/gcps-mainweb01.nsf/F42D74FA4ECBBFED85257754006DDA21/$file/HEP_Parent_Brochure_10-11.pdf
The homeless and addicts have been stratified to the bottom of the social ladder. They are thought to be deviants therefore as a society we are taught to ignore and despise them and disregard their needs. Bourgeois and Schonberg’s 10-year study, Righteous Dopefiend, follows the lives of heroin addicted homeless folk living on Edgewater Boulevard. The Edgewater homeless recognize that those with economic capital have a responsibility in caring for their needs thus they embrace their worthiness in society. As a result of this they label themselves as “righteous dopefiends” (2009, p. 5). Bourgeois and Schonberg show how structural violence has affected the Edgewater homeless, such as self-blame, lack of access to quality medical care and what is described as intimate apartheid.
In his observation of the boys, he finds that these boys are criminalized by many social forces besides the police. “I found that schools pushed out boys who had been victimized.” (pg. 6). Many boys feel that their school system blames them for crimes that have occurred in their area, or as a danger to other students in the classroom. These boys think that these experiences of victimization are part of their street life. Rios says that if the institutions of social control believe that all young people follow the code of the street, then programs and interactions with margined youth’s will be based on this false information. This dishonest perception of youth is what leads to their
This paper has given the reader a brief overview of homelessness in Australia, in particular, youth homelessness. Social research methods have also been explored, looking at the definition of qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods, and the purpose for each. It has been concluded that in order to examine young people’s experiences of homelessness, researchers should focus on qualitative methods of data collection.
Youth homelessness in Ontario is not a new phenomenon, it has become more and more severe over the past 20 years. “One third of homeless individuals on the streets are under the age of 25”(Cino, Rose). It is a significant social justice issue in Canada. Within our community people are increasingly aware of the sight of youth sleeping in parks, asking for money and sitting on sidewalks. Youth homelessness in Ontario is primarily caused by tragic life occurrences such as abuse, illness or unemployment.
Tunstall, L. (2009). Homelessness: an overview. EBSCO Publishing Service Selection Page. Retrieved February 5, 2011, from http://web.ebscohost.com/pov/detail?hid=119&sid=d5f751fa-0d0d-4ed1-8deb-483e701af50c%40sessionmgr111&vid=3&bdata=Jmxhbmc9ZW4tY2Emc2l0ZT1wb3YtY2Fu#db=p3h&AN=28674966
Homeless Youth: Characteristics, Contributing Factors, and Service Options. Journal Of Human Behavior In The Social Environment, 20(2), 193-217. doi:10.1080/10911350903269831
The youth homelessness population is increasing because of the many challenges that these children or teens face in everyday life; It also continues getting larger every year because of the many youth who are getting into dangerous situations that force them to be homeless or thru their own choosing. One third of the homeless population is between the ages of 16-24, which is incredibly young and it is the prime years for an adolescent or young adu...
Based off the attention from modern media, youth homelessness has been on an unfortunate upslope in the United States within the past decade. Various factors tie into why this issue is becoming more prominent such as low income households being unable to afford children, LGBT youth rejection, and domestic abuse leading to children leaving home. Now, vagrancy has a severely negative impact on the development of young people as it inhibits them from developing academically, socially, and mentally and can also expose them to diseases and potentially various types of abuse, such as sexual and substance abuse. This is an issue that should be addressed, for the rising generations are America’s future, and so investing in the overall well-being of the
Stein, M. L., & Roseman, M. (1990). Homeless Children: A New Vulnerability. Child and Youth Services, 89-109.
Elliott’s ambition for writing this article is to expose the world to the horrific conditions of homeless people in America’s largest cities. Invisible Child is successful in bringing awareness to this issue due to its strategic implementations of thought provoking situations and its application of emotional content. The audience of this article would most likely include ordinary people who are conscious of the difficulties of those in their neighborhood and surrounding areas.
According to an article published by the National Coalition for the Homeless, there are over 1.6 million runaways and unaccompanied youth in the United States. This means they spend this critical age, the time for school dances and serial procrastination, ducking into alleys and sleeping on park benches. According to the National Conference of State Legislatures a startling one in seven children between the ages ten and eighteen will run away (Homeless and Runaway Youth). In a nation so mindful of their youth, America has fallen behind in prioritizing a safe place for these youth to sleep at night. If this problem persists, future generations will find themselves being led by vola...