Criminality and Homeless Men: An Empirical Assessment

Homelessness, Mental Illness, and Criminal Activity: Examining Patterns Over Time

“…Also, although street homelessness was associated with non-violent crime, one cannot say definitively that these crimes were subsistence-driven without knowing their exact nature or the reasons people engaged in them. Based on findings from other research (e.g., Snow et al 1989), it is likely that at least some of the non-violent crimes were subsistence-driven. However, non-violent criminal activity may also include public disturbances relating to psychological symptoms in this mentally ill sample.…”

“…However, other researchers have not been able to replicate this relationship. Snow et al (1989) found that homeless men were generally no different than the overall male population in committing violent crimes. Arrests were either not statistically different or lower for homeless participants for murder, rape, and aggravated assault, though homeless participants had slightly higher arrest rates for robbery.…”

“…Other researchers showed that homeless individuals are often arrested for crimes resulting from subsistence-related strategies, such as being charged with trespassing or sleeping on a park bench (Fischer 1988;Snow et al 1989). Snow and Mulcahy (2001) showed that homeless individuals may adopt new subsistence strategies, including illegal strategies such as theft, when previous strategies are blocked (e.g., a new city ordinance restricting panhandling).…”

“…Vandalism would most likely not be related to subsistence strategies, but the item's wording did not allow us to separate participants' responses between these two types of crime. We decided to include this item despite its limitations because we believe that shoplifting could potentially be an important subsistence strategy, as suggested by prior research (e.g., Snow et al 1989). …”

A Longitudinal Population-Based Study of Factors in Adolescence Predicting Homelessness in Young Adulthood

“…The prevalence rates of mental health problems, substance abuse problems, and antisocial and offending behavior are considerably higher among homeless persons than among the general population [8][9][10] . The prevalence of substance use disorder, internalizing symptomatology, and suicide attempts may be particularly high among homeless youngsters, who also frequently report feelings of uselessness and lack of self-respect [11][12][13].…”