“If Something Happened, I Will Leave It, Let It Go and Move On”

Abstract

In the present study, we draw on interviews conducted with 60 homeless women (N = 60) in Detroit and Chicago about their experiences of violent criminal victimization and their attitudes toward accessing various postvictimization assistance-in particular, mental health counseling. Contrary to the research literature, which tends to overemphasize pathological responses to victimization within this population, what our data reveals is the extent to which victimized homeless women exhibit signs of resiliency through both attitudes and coping behaviors. Further, their expressed attitudes demonstrate the existence of a complex set of relationships between trauma, resiliency, and the desire to access mental health services. These findings we suggest have implications for the delivery of mental health services to this group.