This second chapter will offer a critical review of the relevant literature on the subject of youth homelessness in order to provide the reader with a comprehensive understanding of trends and issues surrounding youth homelessness in the uk in relation to a critical appraisal of the current literature on this matter. The issue of homelessness and that of youth homelessness has been researched extensively, though the reliability of this research is questionable and will be discussed later in this chapter. The literature on homelessness and youth homelessness includes review studies, anecdotal evidence, experimental or quantitative data, and qualitative analysis.

These types of literature on homelessness and youth homelessness will be critically discussed in following sections of this chapter. The definition of homelessness and also youth homelessness is an issue that causes great debate and conjecture watson amp austerberry, 1986, p.13, as cited by hutson amp liddiard, 1994, p.30 stewart amp stewart, 1992 fitzpatrick, kemp amp klinker, 20 christian, 2003 pickering et. 2003 pleace amp fitzpatrick, 2004 scottish executive, 2005 department for communities and local government, 2006 wireman, 2007. In light of this, it was felt appropriate to provide a brief section explaining the problems of defining this issue in this chapter even though a definition was already formulated in the previous chapter. Our writers can help get your essay back on track, take a look at our services to learn more about how we can help.

Essay writing service essay marking service place an order many researchers have attempted to produce a universal definition or an explanation as to why differences of definition occur. Hutson and liddiard 1994, p.27 stated that it is helpful to consider homelessness as a continuum of having situations, ranging from those situations, such as sleeping rough, which almost everyone agrees represents homelessness, though more contentious circumstances that only some commentaries would describe as homelessness. However, it has been has also been argued by these authors that there is little agreement about just what constitutes homelessness hutson amp liddiard, 1994, p.27.

In relation to that of youth homelessness, hutson amp liddiard 1994 argued that the definitions of youth homelessness have poorly defined boundaries, particularly pertaining to the criteria of the age that constitutes young homeless people hutson amp liddiard, 1994 pleace, burrow amp quilgars, 1997 smith, 19 pickering et. This argument has been supported by chamberlain and mackenzie 1992, as cited by hutson amp liddiard, 1994, p.27 , christian 2003 , pleace and quilgars 2003 and watson and austerberry 1986, as cited by hutson amp liddiard, 1994, p.30. As such, there is certainly a need for a comprehensive, universal definition for youth homelessness so that research can be more cohesive and interrelated in order to provide a more valid and workable picture of homelessness and youth homelessness in the uk. The uk estimate of youth homelessness is believed to be the second largest in northern europe smith, 19.

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However, hutson amp liddiard 1994 argue that statistics on homelessness are often highly unreliable and that in the uk there is a significant absence of accurate statistics on youth homelessness pleace amp fitzpatrick, 2004 quilgars, johnsen amp pleace, 2008. Hence, it is difficult to gain a valid and reliable figure of the prevalence of young homeless people in the uk, which produces problems for accurately researching issues relating to youth homelessness and producing effective preventions and interventions. According to pawson 2007 , the uk local authorities reported figures have demonstrated a decrease in homelessness since 2003/2004, although, other agencies have since disputed these findings, contending that the figures have remained relatively the same pleace amp fitzpatrick, 2004 scottish executive, 2005 department for communities and local government, 2006.

Furthermore, it has been argued that youth homelessness is difficult to quantify due to the fact that young homeless populations are very rarely included in official statistics obtained by local authorities and if young homeless people are recorded it is only those that are viewed to be homeless by that local authority gale, 1998. As such, there is very little consistency between the criteria for youth homelessness figures and measurement between local authorities. There are a series of problems with surveying the number of the homeless in the uk. For example, hutson amp liddiard 1994 claim that many surveys, such as the uk census on homelessness, are most often an inaccurate representation of the number of homeless people, as such surveys do not record and even miss people at unusual or transitory addresses and can also re count homeless people, as these individuals do not have a static address and can move areas within the research zone. Moreover, it is difficult to record the number of homeless in the uk as it is difficult to locate these individuals.

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Such problems result in fluctuations in the figures of uk homelessness stewart amp stewart, 1992 hutson amp liddiard, 1994 pleace, burrow amp quilgars, 1997 pleace amp quilgars, 19 pleace amp fitzpatrick, 2004 wireman, 2007 quilgars, johnsen amp pleace, 2008. Furthermore, these problems can offer an explanation as to why there are differences between the figures reported in each survey. It is also the case that there is a significant under representation of young women and young black people in the homeless statistics of young homeless people hutson amp liddiard, 1994 smith, 19 pleace amp fitzpatrick, 2004. For example, smith 19 conducted a quantitative study of seven major uk cities, excluding london, in order to produce evidence in relation to the extent of youth homelessness in the uk.

It was found that that youth homelessness accounted for between 5 7% of the uk population of young people aged between 16 to 25 years of age. Interestingly, it was also found that the majority of young homeless people were young single women. This finding was found in every city surveyed apart from in manchester and glasgow. It is argued that this may be due to the fact that the majority of figures on youth homelessness exclude young homelessness single mothers whereas this study did not. Moreover, it was found that different ethnic minorities were over represented compared to young asians and white europeans who were under represented in these figures.

Hence, it can be concluded that public perception of youth homelessness in the uk is invalid as it is based on inaccurate and unreliable figures and that the majority of young homeless people are young women and young black people. However, it could be said that this study could be influenced by the very methodological and procedural problems that the author comments upon within the article. As such, the usefulness of these findings could be limited if the research were affected by such problems. On the other hand, it is to be hoped that this study is free from the methodological weaknesses that plague previous studies. Who wrote this essay request removal example essays pleace and quilgars 19 highlighted anecdotal evidence that has found that the majority of the homeless population is made up by the young homelessness. This finding has been supported by the findings of several studies anderson amp christian, 2003 smith, 19. There are several methodological problems with using anecdotal data to make assumptions relating to populations.

For example, anecdotal evidence is highly unreliable in the sense that similar studies may not gain similar results due to the unstructured nature of the original study. What is more, it has been found that youth homelessness in the uk has been increasing rapidly over the past decade gale, 1998 pleace amp fitzpatrick, 2004. Smith 19 argues that there are specific explanations as to why there are differences reported in the number of young homeless people. For example, smith highlights the fact that one of these differences is due to the criteria for inclusion in these surveys, as different surveys have different criterion for what ages are inclusive of young homeless people, such as 16 to 25 years of age, or 18 to 25 years of age, for instance. A second explanation for these differences is due to the criteria being based on difference in what is acceptable for classification of homelessness, such as basing this criterion under the uk homeless legislation, which under this legislation in fact excludes youth homelessness in many official figures hutson amp liddiard, 1994 pleace, burrow amp quilgars, 1997 smith, 19 pleace amp fitzpatrick, 2004 quilgars, johnsen amp pleace, 2008. Furthermore, pleace amp fitzpatrick 2004 found that the data on youth homelessness is limited and that it is impossible to estimate the true number of young homeless people in the uk.

As such, these differences in methodology and procedure could be easily rectified if a universal procedure and measurement of the criteria of homelessness and youth homelessness could be agreed on by homelessness researchers. As such, homeless statistics can be said to be without merit and with very limited use. There is no one specific cause for youth homelessness that is unique to all young homeless people. There are structural reasons for homelessness, such as, high unemployment, low pay and a shortage of accommodation. There are also individual factors, such as substance abuse or cognitive impairment, for example. For example, studies of youth homelessness have drawn attention to the role of individual characteristics pleace amp quilgars, 19, p.93 whilst ignoring structural factors in youth homelessness, such as inadequate education systems. Therefore, such an issue should lead researchers to advocate a more holistic, universal theory regarding the cause of youth homelessness.