NCJ Number
157656
Journal
American Behavioral Scientist Volume: 37 Issue: 4 Dated: (February 1994) Pages: 461-475
Date Published
1994
Length
15 pages
Annotation
This paper argues that the most common research strategy used to study homeless individuals unwittingly presents a distorted view of the phenomenon it seeks to understand.
Abstract
The distortions that result from such investigations occur along two dimensions. First, the rates of many pathologies among the homeless are likely to be exaggerated in terms of both frequency and severity. Second, both these and other problematic behaviors of the homeless are not understood in the situational context in which they are embedded. In each case, the picture that emerges from such research is truncated and excessively negative. The kind of research the authors propose cannot provide all of the answers to the issue of homelessness, but it does offer several correctives. First, it can help counter the overly pathologized view of the homeless that has prevailed in the research literature since the early 1980's. The alternative line of work often provides a portrait of the homeless that recognizes their strengths of adaptability, resourcefulness, and resilience, as well as contextualizing their more stigmatized behaviors. In attending to and reporting the voices of the homeless themselves, the proposed research is responsive to the desire of the homeless to have a part in their own description. To be homeless is not just to be physically deprived but also socially deprived as well. 4 notes and 35 references