Almost three-quarters of homeless young people in Toronto say they have been the victim of multiple crimes, a new survey suggests, wrote CBC News online:

“Being homeless means constant exposure to dangerous people and places,” said the report, "Surviving Crime and Violence: Street Youth and Victimization in Toronto". It was released Monday.

While most criminal cases involve property, almost two-thirds of the people interviewed for the study said they have been the victim of a violent crime at least once. And more than three-quarters said they had been victimized in the past year, says the 2009 survey of 244 homeless young people aged 16 to 25.

That group is “perhaps the most victimized street youth population,” authors Stephen Gaetz, Bill O’Grady and Kristy Buccieri wrote. Gaetz is associate dean of research & field development in York University’s Faculty of Education, O’Grady is a sociology and anthropology professor at the University of Guelph, and Buccieri is a PhD student at York.

The piece was also covered in  Yahoo.ca, ScienceDaily.com, RedOrbit.com, MedicalNewsToday.com Sept. 28.

Gaetz, who is the associate dean of research & field development in York’s Faculty of Education, also spoke about his latest study that shows homeless youth are often victims of crime, on CBC Radio and Radio Canada stations across the country and on OMNI-TV Sept. 27.

Posted by Elizabeth Monier-Williams with files courtesy of YFile – York University’s daily e-bulletin.