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Homeless People Stereotypes Essay

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Another stereotype that has established itself in society’s mindset is that all homeless people are criminals. In the online Huffington Post article, “10 Facts About Homelessness,” written by Bill Quigley, the author asserts that “Jerome Murdough, a homeless former Marine, was arrested for trespass in New York because he was found sleeping in a public housing stairwell.” In all reality, if any homeless individual commits a crime, they are not dangerous crimes rather they are status crimes. Status crimes include trespassing, loitering, or sleeping on public property. Nonetheless, if a criminal had committed serious crimes such as murder or involvement in drug, they would be behind bars, not lurking on the streets. In her online article called …show more content…

Stereotypes are a widely held but fixed and oversimplified image or idea of a group of people as opposed to misconceptions which are views or opinion that is incorrect because it is based on faulty information. The two terms are relatively coined together, but it is crucial to note that stereotypes are exaggerated truths whereas misconceptions are untruths. The false assumptions misrepresent homeless people and paint a poor image of them. However, in some cases, these stereotypes aren’t exaggerated at all, rather they are accurate depictions of certain homeless people. Personal interviews with the homeless reveal the struggles of living alone. The cause of homelessness isn’t laziness; being homeless requires a lot of stress into thinking about how to survive each day. Most homeless people are not criminals and many of those who are technically criminals have committed property crimes in order to live. In addition, the top reasons of homelessness are lack of affordable housing, lack of a living wage, and medical bankruptcy, but none of these reasons are related to choice. These misconceptions and stereotypes are dangerous to society since they seriously interfere with attempts to help those that are in need and

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