Multi-Dimensional Recovery and Growth Among the Homeless: A Positive Criminology Perspective

Abstract

The research literature on the recovery and growth processes of the homeless population is limited and lacking—particularly with regard to the recovery and growth potential of that population, and its recovery capital (RC) dynamics. This qualitative study fills the research gap by examining the recovery process on its various manifestations, the formation of RC, the patterns of coping with distress, and the growth processes experienced. Ten semi-structured in-depth interviews were conducted with participants from a homeless hostel. The results show how a population with low or depleted RC, in a state of extreme distress, and in the throes of a bottom-up experience, succeeds in developing RC on a personal, social, and spiritual level—and through it, also reaching post-crisis growth. This study yields innovative terminology to describe the coping patterns and their development in three stages— economical coping, liminal stage of resources mustering, and resourceful coping—and a model to explain the phenomenon, and re-conceptualize it.