Gimme Shelter: A Social History of Homelessness in Contemporary America

by Gregg Barak

Overview

According to current projections, the number of homeless in the United States will continue to swell in the 1990s unless more aggressive efforts to combat the problem are initiated. Based upon a thorough analysis of the underlying social and political causes of homelessness in this country, this study takes a a hard look at the realities and misconceptions that surround the victims. Barak demonstrates how current public service programs inadequately address the issue and proposes governmental policy changes that could prove beneficial. Related issues of criminality, injustice, and constitutionality associated with the treatment of the homeless are uncovered as the discussion searches for both short and long term solutions to this burgeoning crisis.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780275933203
Publisher:	Bloomsbury Academic
Publication date:	04/19/1991
Pages:	232
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.69(d)

About the Author

GREGG BARAK is Professor and Head of the Anthropology and Criminology Department at Eastern Michigan University. He is the author of In Defense of Whom? A Critique of Criminal Justice Reform (1980) and editor of Crimes by the Capitalist State: An Introduction to State Criminality, and numerous articles in related jourbanals.

Table of Contents

Preface
The Problem of Homelessness
Introduction
The Changing Nature of Homelessness
The Political Economy of the New Vagrancy
The Crime of Homelessness versus the Crimes of the Homeless
Confronting the Problem
Responding to Short-Term Homeless Needs
Resisting Homelessness
The Rights of the Homeless
Social Change and Homelessness: Past and Future
Selected Bibliography
Index

Editorial Reviews

Based on an analysis of the underlying social and political causes of homelessness in America, Barak explores the realities and misconceptions that surround the victims, demonstrates how current public service programs inadequately address the issue, and proposes policy changes that could prove beneficial. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

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