Homeless people are sometimes the perpetrators and quite often the victims of crime and violence. This article reviews the available research on this topic, focusing mainly on studies conducted in the United States. Homeless teens, women, the mentally ill, and the substance-abusive are shown to be especially high-risk subpopulations. Random acts of violence committed against homeless people are evidently on the rise, both in the United States and around the world. Around the world, many communities have responded to the rise in homelessness by criminalizing homeless behaviors. Unfortunately these measures do not assist people in exiting homelessness
