Being a resident of Bergen County, New Jersey, I visit New York City frequently
and unfortunately witness homelessness every time. It breaks my heart to see people
living and begging on the streets, but it really hits me hard when I see a homeless a young
adult. This summer I also watched an old documentary directed by Martin Bell called
Streetwise, about homeless teens in Seattle. It followed about five kids surviving on the
streets, but mainly had a focus on a 14-year-old prostitute whose name on the street was
“Tiny”. After watching this documentary about kids trying to get by while living on the
street, I began to research everything I could find about the homeless youth and found it
very sad and interesting, if only there was something
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Since the homeless youth has a challenge going to
school they face trouble in supporting themselves because the better the education the
less likely you are to be in poverty.
One of the main sociological perspectives is a functionalist perspective. The
functionalist perspective would focus on social systems as a whole whose parts work
together to ensure a sable ground. Every part of the society serves a purpose. The
functionalist would view teen homelessness as a necessary part of society that keeps
things going and gives out more jobs. The functionalist would view the teens as being
homeless as their fault; the blame is placed on the individual. The solution they would
propose to combat this social problem would be to give out more jobs like consolers, so
the society can benefit from the homeless teens.
Another sociological perspective would be the conflict perspective. The conflict
perspective is social life formed by groups and individuals that are struggling with others
for rewards that result in power and wealth and get you higher in the social system. The
sociological perspective would view this social problem by an imbalance of power in