Since 2010, the juvenile murder rate in Colorado has skyrocketed by 210 percent, while violent crime as a whole is up 7 percent.
In her nearly ten years as Denver District Attorney, Beth McCann has never seen a murder defendant as young as the one accused of"Never that young, no," she says of the thirteen-year-old suspect, who is being tried as a juvenile.
While the suspects may not be quite so young, similar stories have grabbed headlines across Colorado over the past few years, with district attorneys and other experts tellingthat even as crime overall is going down, youth violence in the state has reached"crisis levels.
"I am literally shocked and frightened by some of the things I'm seeing in terms of what kids are doing," says, which covers Adams and Broomfield counties."Every single one of these crimes is senseless. Every single one of them. And that's why they're so frightening. There's no way to predict when someone is going to shoot a gun over a ridiculous conflict.
Denver's Handgun Intervention Program was rolled out in 2021 to offer second chances to minors convicted of first-time, non-violent firearm offenses. Anyone under the age of eighteen who doesn't have any priors and qualifies is eligible to take part in a six-week educational class and six months of probation, leading to their convictions being expunged.
"For my jurisdiction, which has almost 700,000 people, we only have seventeen beds that by law we can use for kids who commit violent crimes," Mason says. The concentration of juvenile crime in Colorado is highest in Adams, Fremont, Jefferson, Mesa and Boulder counties. Adams, El Paso, Jefferson and Denver counties account for 58 percent of all juvenile crimes, though they only have 44 percent of the state’s population."We haven't been doing enough"
"Just like we have roads and bridges, we need to have an infrastructure to prevent violence," Kingston explains."What we mean by that is, it's basically a network of supportive, dependable relationships and focused resources that are aligned toward preventing violence and promoting healthy youth development. What we want to see is that this infrastructure is going to address the root causes of violence.
"We are focusing our efforts, our partners — law enforcement, social services, the community — we're all focusing on the very small percentage of young people that have the highest rate of recidivism in terms of gun crime and violent crime," Hanifin explains."Our primary, overarching goal is to keep the young men and women who are most at risk for violence in our community alive, safe and free. And by free, we mean out of prison.
According to Hanifin, the main message is this:"We know who you are, we know what you're doing, and we're not going to tolerate the violence anymore. If you make us, we will stop you. However, we want to give you an off-ramp, if you'll take it." That's where the social services and needs-assessment offer comes in, he says.
"The reason why focus deterrence strategies are so successful — and there's a lot of data and science out there about this — are two things," he explains."One, you strip away their anonymity. You are now going to them and saying, 'We know who you are and what you're doing. We're watching.' And the second is that you offer concrete services and support."
If they learn to manage their emotions through proper conflict resolution and have positive relationships, Kingston says, ideally youth conflicts won't escalate into violence. "We're finding that one of the things that will make the most difference for a kid is having at least one engaged adult — one adult that cares about the kid — that the kid can talk to or go to," McCann tellsHearing from the kids themselves
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