With No Direction Home: Homeless Youth on the Road and In the Streets

by Marni Finkelstein

Do you know what it's really like to be a young homeless person? WITH NO DIRECTION HOMELESS YOUTH ON THE ROAD AND IN THE STREETS takes you into their world, their living conditions, and their street experiences. Plus, it takes a hard look at fictive kin experiences and drug addiction. Learn how to move from compassion to rapport with this incredible ethnography textbook.

Genres: Anthropology

160 pages, Paperback

First published March 17, 2004

Reviews

[Jean Dory · Rating 5 out of 5]

This 2005 book was assigned for an anthropology course taught by the author at Pace University. Employing the ethnographic method, she worked two summers with the street kids in NYC, interviewing them in their language, not that of the social scientist. She permits the reader to get to know some of these adolescents who have chosen to leave home and family to find their individuality in a new community of wanderers and dropouts, describing their "adaptation to homelessness and survival strategies on urban streets" with "implications for improving social services, health care and the effectiveness of law enforcement." As a commuter to the city, I really appreciated this sympathetic, scientific, in-depth look at the definition, socialization, lifestyle, drug use, psychology, and possible futures of these fascinating modern-day hobos.