Post #14236

The 'individual culpability' model sees homelessness as having little or nothing to do with societal structures but as resulting from the individual behavior of young homeless people themselves. Young homeless people, it is argued, do not have to leave home. As individuals in a free society they are accountable to themselves for their decisions. The advantage of this perspective is that it gives some credibility to the self-determination of young homeless people. However, because such an approach allocates blame to an individual, it also carries punitive implications.