diff --git a/aws_lambda_powertools/event_handler/api_gateway.py b/aws_lambda_powertools/event_handler/api_gateway.py
index fd49ed9aef9..80898c14f78 100644
--- a/aws_lambda_powertools/event_handler/api_gateway.py
+++ b/aws_lambda_powertools/event_handler/api_gateway.py
@@ -1500,7 +1500,7 @@ def __init__(
         serializer: Callable[[dict], str] | None = None,
         strip_prefixes: list[str | Pattern] | None = None,
         enable_validation: bool = False,
-        response_validation_error_http_status: HTTPStatus | None = None,
+        response_validation_error_http_status=None,
     ):
         """
         Parameters
@@ -1520,6 +1520,8 @@ def __init__(
             Each prefix can be a static string or a compiled regex pattern
         enable_validation: bool | None
             Enables validation of the request body against the route schema, by default False.
+        response_validation_error_http_status
+            Enables response validation and sets returned status code if response is not validated.
         """
         self._proxy_type = proxy_type
         self._dynamic_routes: list[Route] = []
@@ -1535,7 +1537,28 @@ def __init__(
         self.context: dict = {}  # early init as customers might add context before event resolution
         self.processed_stack_frames = []
         self._response_builder_class = ResponseBuilder[BaseProxyEvent]
-        self._response_validation_error_http_status = response_validation_error_http_status
+        self._has_response_validation_error = response_validation_error_http_status is not None
+
+        if response_validation_error_http_status and not enable_validation:
+            msg = "'response_validation_error_http_status' cannot be set when enable_validation is False."
+            raise ValueError(msg)
+
+        if (
+            not isinstance(response_validation_error_http_status, HTTPStatus)
+            and response_validation_error_http_status is not None
+        ):
+
+            try:
+                response_validation_error_http_status = HTTPStatus(response_validation_error_http_status)
+            except ValueError:
+                msg = f"'{response_validation_error_http_status}' must be an integer representing an HTTP status code."
+                raise ValueError(msg) from None
+
+        self._response_validation_error_http_status = (
+            response_validation_error_http_status
+            if response_validation_error_http_status
+            else HTTPStatus.UNPROCESSABLE_ENTITY
+        )
 
         # Allow for a custom serializer or a concise json serialization
         self._serializer = serializer or partial(json.dumps, separators=(",", ":"), cls=Encoder)
@@ -1549,7 +1572,7 @@ def __init__(
                 [
                     OpenAPIValidationMiddleware(
                         validation_serializer=serializer,
-                        has_response_validation_error=self._response_validation_error_http_status is not None,
+                        has_response_validation_error=self._has_response_validation_error,
                     ),
                 ],
             )
@@ -2386,12 +2409,15 @@ def _call_exception_handler(self, exp: Exception, route: Route) -> ResponseBuild
         # OpenAPIValidationMiddleware will only raise ResponseValidationError when
         # 'self._response_validation_error_http_status' is not None
         if isinstance(exp, ResponseValidationError):
-            if self._response_validation_error_http_status is None:
-                raise TypeError
+            http_status = (
+                self._response_validation_error_http_status
+                if self._response_validation_error_http_status
+                else HTTPStatus.UNPROCESSABLE_ENTITY
+            )
             errors = [{"loc": e["loc"], "type": e["type"]} for e in exp.errors()]
             return self._response_builder_class(
                 response=Response(
-                    status_code=self._response_validation_error_http_status,
+                    status_code=http_status.value,
                     content_type=content_types.APPLICATION_JSON,
                     body={"statusCode": self._response_validation_error_http_status, "detail": errors},
                 ),
@@ -2611,7 +2637,7 @@ def __init__(
         serializer: Callable[[dict], str] | None = None,
         strip_prefixes: list[str | Pattern] | None = None,
         enable_validation: bool = False,
-        response_validation_error_http_status: HTTPStatus | None = None,
+        response_validation_error_http_status: HTTPStatus | int | None = None,
     ):
         """Amazon API Gateway REST and HTTP API v1 payload resolver"""
         super().__init__(
@@ -2695,7 +2721,7 @@ def __init__(
         serializer: Callable[[dict], str] | None = None,
         strip_prefixes: list[str | Pattern] | None = None,
         enable_validation: bool = False,
-        response_validation_error_http_status: HTTPStatus | None = None,
+        response_validation_error_http_status: HTTPStatus | int | None = None,
     ):
         """Amazon API Gateway HTTP API v2 payload resolver"""
         super().__init__(
@@ -2734,7 +2760,7 @@ def __init__(
         serializer: Callable[[dict], str] | None = None,
         strip_prefixes: list[str | Pattern] | None = None,
         enable_validation: bool = False,
-        response_validation_error_http_status: HTTPStatus | None = None,
+        response_validation_error_http_status: HTTPStatus | int | None = None,
     ):
         """Amazon Application Load Balancer (ALB) resolver"""
         super().__init__(
diff --git a/aws_lambda_powertools/event_handler/lambda_function_url.py b/aws_lambda_powertools/event_handler/lambda_function_url.py
index f45d7253cd7..2120bdeb28a 100644
--- a/aws_lambda_powertools/event_handler/lambda_function_url.py
+++ b/aws_lambda_powertools/event_handler/lambda_function_url.py
@@ -59,7 +59,7 @@ def __init__(
         serializer: Callable[[dict], str] | None = None,
         strip_prefixes: list[str | Pattern] | None = None,
         enable_validation: bool = False,
-        response_validation_error_http_status: HTTPStatus | None = None,
+        response_validation_error_http_status: HTTPStatus | int | None = None,
     ):
         super().__init__(
             ProxyEventType.LambdaFunctionUrlEvent,
diff --git a/aws_lambda_powertools/event_handler/vpc_lattice.py b/aws_lambda_powertools/event_handler/vpc_lattice.py
index 9e36b540ffd..fcb58545055 100644
--- a/aws_lambda_powertools/event_handler/vpc_lattice.py
+++ b/aws_lambda_powertools/event_handler/vpc_lattice.py
@@ -55,7 +55,7 @@ def __init__(
         serializer: Callable[[dict], str] | None = None,
         strip_prefixes: list[str | Pattern] | None = None,
         enable_validation: bool = False,
-        response_validation_error_http_status: HTTPStatus | None = None,
+        response_validation_error_http_status: HTTPStatus | int | None = None,
     ):
         """Amazon VPC Lattice resolver"""
         super().__init__(
@@ -113,7 +113,7 @@ def __init__(
         serializer: Callable[[dict], str] | None = None,
         strip_prefixes: list[str | Pattern] | None = None,
         enable_validation: bool = False,
-        response_validation_error_http_status: HTTPStatus | None = None,
+        response_validation_error_http_status: HTTPStatus | int | None = None,
     ):
         """Amazon VPC Lattice resolver"""
         super().__init__(