University of Maryland
Sociology 498: Homelessness 

Liebow: Tell Them Who I Am

Liebow's contrast of situational and individual causal explanations:

"What is striking about these [homeless women's] public, general theories ... is that, unlike the private attribution of mental illness to selected individuals, they point no fingers at the women themselves. The cause of homelessness is seen as situational rather than something that inheres in the individual."

Elliot Liebow, Tell Them Who I Am, chapter 6, page 216.
 

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Last updated March 13, 2006
comments to: Reeve Vanneman. reeve@cwmills.umd.edu