Who Is More Dangerous? Comparing the Criminality of Adult Homeless and Domiciled Jail Inmates: A Research Note

The criminality of 100 homeless and 100 domiciled jail inmates was compared. Homeless jail inmates were significantly more likely than domiciled jail inmates to be mentally ill, to be arrested for nuisance offenses, to have more extensive criminal histories, and to have prior arrests for use of weapons, drugs, and alcohol. Suggestions for processing homeless offenders are given. Homeless people in the United States are a source of frequent and varied sociological inquiry. Researchers are ideologically torn over whether the homeless are worthy or unworthy of public sympathy and support (Wright, 1988b). A classical school argument (e.g., Cesare Beccaria and Jeremy Bentham) is that the homeless are rational, free-thinking actors who have no one but themselves to blame for personal inadequacies such as alcoholism, drug addiction, unemployment, transiency, and mental illness. The homeless, according to a classical perspective, are a reproachable group of derelicts. Conversely, a positivist school argument is that the homeless are a disparate group of unfortunate, indigent people whose social condition is attributable to macro-societal forces such as a changing economy, not personal inadequacies. The homeless, according to a positivist perspective, are unfortunate victims of social forces. Investigations of homeless criminality generally occupy four categories: (a) whether the homeless involvement in the criminal justice system is legitimate or the result of police harassment (Aulette & Aulette, 1987; Irwin, 1985), (b) whether a real relationship exists between mental illness and homeless criminality (Belcher, 1988; Benda, 1987; Simons, Whitbeck, & Bales, 1989; Snow, Baker, Anderson, & Martin, 1986; Wright, 1988a), (c) whether a relationship exists between drug and alcohol abuse and homeless criminality (Snow, Baker, & Anderson, 1989), and (d) whether homelessness itself is criminogenic (McCarthy & Hagan, 1991, 1992). International Journal of Offender Therapy and Comparative Criminology, 44(1), 2000 59-69  2000 Sage Publications, Inc.