Bookshop

Homeless adolescents

HOME / INDEX  

Now available: Purchase the book from your nearest Amazon store by clicking on the flag

Amazon.com Amazon.ca Amazon.co.uk


 

Runaway adolescents: A family systems perspective
By Brenda Melson



Book description:
An introduction to the topic of runaway adolescents is followed by a substantial examination of the literature and a study proposing family systems theory as a comprehensive theoretical framework for understanding the phenomenon. Includes a selection of case studies and a summary and discussion.
 The work for this book was began in the middle 1980s while Brenda Melson was serving as part-time counselor at a private agency in the City of St. Louis and pursuing doctoral study at St. Louis University. Children and adolescents, many of whom were runaways, and their parents were among those referred to the counseling agency by the Status Offender Unit of the St. Louis Police Department. Her work with runaways and their parents, in conjunction with my doctoral study in the Department of Education with a concentration in Marriage and Family Development and Therapy, provided opportunities to apply family systems theory to clinical work with runaways in their family context. This effort led to her doctoral dissertation and later to additional research and publication of this book. Current estimates of adolescent runaways range between one and two million per year, and predictions are that the issue will remain a major concern in this country for years to come. Much contradictory and confusing evidence regarding adolescent runaway behavior seems to be hindering the formation of meaningful social policy as well as effective prevention, treatment, and research strategies. Today's runaways are quite different from those who were among America's earliest immigrants and from runaways who were common during periods of war and social upheaval throughout American history. She proposes family systems theory as a comprehensive theoretical framework which can be applied meaningfully to understanding the complexities of adolescent runaway behavior. This framework should prove useful to practitioners and service providers in their understanding and treatment of runaways, to educators and counselors in their teaching and guidance of adolescents, to researchers in their further study of adolescent runaways, and to all others who may have a particular interest in learning about the subject.
 

back to top 

 



The impact of multiple childhood trauma on homeless runaway adolescents
By Michael Dipaolo
 

Book description:
 This book proposes a model for examining the relationship between multiple types of childhood trauma-physical, sexual and psychological abuse, exposure to domestic violence-and psychological functioning in a sample of 140 homeless adolescents.
 

back to top 

 

Teenage runaways: Broken hearts and bad attitudes
By Lautie Schaffer

Book description:
Teenage Runaways: Broken Hearts and "Bad Attitudes" uncovers the perspectives of actual teenage runaways to help professionals, parents, and youths understand the widespread social problem of "last resort" behavior. You'll learn the real reasons teenagers run away, and you'll hear the anguished voices of the teenage runaways themselves, shattering the myth that only bad kids runaway. Teenage Runaways deflates popular misconceptions that runaways are incorrigible delinquents who want to leave home, that they make impulsive decisions to leave their families, and that they wish to never return. Reporting on a qualitative study of 26 runaways in a shelter in New England, this book reveals that many teenaged runaways leave home in search of safety and freedom from what they consider abusive treatment, whether physical, sexual, or emotional. In Teenage Runaways, you will discover valuable information about who these children are, why they are running away, and what you can do to help. Specifically, you will read about:

  • why teenagers say they run away
  • running away as "last resort behavior"
  • what the experience of running away is like
  • hope and desire for reconciliation with parents and family
  • running away as a dynamic emotional experience for youths which reflects changes in their social bonds with peers, family, and adults in the educational, legal, and medical systems
  • "emotional capital" from a heavily regulated authoritative environment

Teenage Runaways provides you with a new understanding of teens in trouble to assist you in providing services to this needy and vulnerable population. Firsthand accounts reveal the emotional motivations behind decisions to run away, such as 14 years-old Isabel who gives a painful account of what severe physical and sexual abuse feels like to an adolescent victim. Amy, also 14, tells her story of living with a mother who was extremely strict and betrayed her.
 

back to top 

 


 

Runaway kids and teenage prostitution: America's lost abandoned, and sexually exploited children
 By R. Barri Flowers

Book synopsis:
Examines the nature and incidence of runaway youth and the relationship to teenage prostitution. This concise and accessible new text examines the correlations between runaway children and teenage prostitution in the United States from a criminological, sociological, and psychological perspective. The author takes a systematic approach to defining and describing the differences between youth who run away from home and those who leave institutional settings and distinguishes the difference between runaway and throwaway children. A careful examination of teenage prostitution among girls and boys helps to illuminate the special problems faced by children who have run away. In addition, the author discusses laws related to runaways, teenage prostitution, and the sexual exploitation of minors as well as the criminal justice response to the problems. Runaways and prostitution involving youth in other countries is also explored. The texts findings support current conclusions on the characteristics of runaways, the relationship between runaways and teen prostitution, and the implications of running away from home. Runaway Kids and Teenage Prostitution is divided into five parts. Part I examines the scope and dynamics of running away and differentiates between runaways and throwaways. Part II explores teenage prostitution and provides information on girl and boy prostitutes and the people who exploit them. Child sexual abuse and child pornography as correlates to the problem are studied in Part III, and Part IV reviews the law that attempts to combat teenage prostitution. Part V is devoted to an examination of the scope and significance of the problem in other countries. Together, these chapters provide readers with a clear picture of the problem of runaways and teenage prostitution in the United States and around the world.

Book description:
This concise and accessible new text examines the correlations between runaway children and teenage prostitution in the United States from a criminological, sociological, and psychological perspective. The author takes a systematic approach to defining and describing the differences between youth who run away from home and those who leave institutional settings and distinguishes the difference between runaway and throwaway children. A careful examination of teenage prostitution among girls and boys helps to illuminate the special problems faced by children who have run away. In addition, the author discusses laws related to runaways, teenage prostitution, and the sexual exploitation of minors as well as the criminal justice response to the problems. A chapter is devoted also to the issues of runaway youth and teenage prostitution in other countries.
 


back to top 


 


Living at the edge of the world: A teenager's survival in the tunnels of Grand Central Station
by Tina Jamie

Book Description:
 In a shocking and sometimes mordantly funny narrative of struggle and survival, a young woman writes (with the help of journalist Bolnick) of her six years as a homeless, crack-addicted teen living in New York's underworld. Between the ages of 16 and 20, Tina S. lived in the endless labyrinth of tunnels beneath Grand Central Station, where she panhandled, robbed and sometimes prostituted herself for money for food, liquor and drugs. Having fled her constricting life with her mother and siblings on welfare, Tina met Alice, a dynamic woman her own age who introduced her to the "glamorous" world of drugs and hanging out. Soon Tina was trapped in a maelstrom of addictions, arrests, failed rehabilitations, sexual harassments and violence. Alice's suicide, at the age of 19, haunts both Tina and the book. While the story's breathless narrative crammed with incident occasionally takes on a movie-of-the-week feel, it also manages to be moving and psychologically astute. Tina's voice is fresh, and the book has a matter-of-fact tone that studiously avoids moralizing. Whether she is explaining the difference between heroin and crack" all you have to do with dope is spend $10 and you're straight for the day. With crack you're always on a mission" or talking about how her gay uncle urges her to deal with her lesbianism, Tina's directness and honesty will hold readers tight.
With the help of a homeless advocate and his wife, a gay uncle dying of AIDS, and the woman who was to become her co-author on this book, Tina turns her life around and makes her way back to the world of the living.
 


back to top 



 

Homeless youth
By Jan D. van der Ploeg

Book description:
This wide-ranging book analyzes the problem of youth homelessness in the western world. Taking into account psychological characteristics while highlighting the major risk factors in the family, at school and in society at large, the authors offer both practitioners and policymakers tools for dealing with all aspects of this issue.

Within a clear conceptual and theoretical framework, Jan van der Ploeg and Evert Scholte define the phenomenon of homelessness, drawing on data from across Europe and North America to establish its scope and prevalence among young people today. Always alive to the practical implications of their analysis, they provide a thorough and comprehensive strategy for addressing the plight of the homeless in which prevention and intervention go hand-in-hand.

Homeless Youth will be an invaluable resource for all those involved in tackling this complex social problem from a variety of perspectives, including psychology, psychiatry, social work and social policy.
 

 

 

Knowing where the fountains are: Stories and stark realities of homeless youth
 By Kevin Cwayna
 

Book review:
"Analyzes inadequecies in current approaches to homeless teens; proposes hopeful alternatives."

"Like a medic writing from the trenches about the ravages of war, Dr. Cwayna shares his unique perspective as a medical doctor who has dedicated his life to the service and medical treatment of homeless youth. Dr. Cwayna provides expert insights into the needs of these kids and the inadequacies of our social system that are supposed to serve them. Dr. Cwayna goes beyond an analysis of these systems, he introduces us to the unique kids he works with and shares the pains and struggles that brought them to live on the streets. A heartfelt book by a gifted author and healer".

back to top