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juvenile arrests are declining in Colorado.

Crime rates, including among juveniles, hit records in Colorado and nationwide in the 1980s, then began dropping. In Colorado, the all-time high for juvenile arrests was 70,710 in 1997. By comparison, there were 19,442 juvenile arrests in 2018, according to the Colorado Department of Public Safety.

One of the safest stretches on record, based on crime rates, was 2010-2014, said David Pyrooz, a sociology professor at the University of Colorado Boulder. In the last several years, however, violent crime among young people has been climbing, and it isn’t due to the decisions made by police or prosecutors, he said.

“ ere is something that is taking place,” he said. “ ere is little doubt about that.”

Why violent crime is rising is harder to determine, considering researchers are still trying to understand the 50% reduction in crime rates that occurred nationally in the 1990s, the “criminological miracle,” Pyrooz said.

Now, sociologists are looking at how teenage behaviors — including spending more time at home alone, yet connected via social media and video games — might a ect violent crime rates. In the past, violent crime was often linked to groups of young people hanging out unsupervised in parks or street corners, Pyrooz said.

Researchers are also just beginning to examine the pandemic’s e ect on youth crime, which could have repercussions for years to come, he said. Kids who stopped going to after-school activities and sports during the isolation of the pandemic, perhaps as fourth or fth graders, might not have returned to those sports, meaning they will miss out on those activities as middle and high school students, when they are more likely to get involved in criminal activity. e keys to keeping kids out of trouble are community support systems, including within families, schools and churches, Pyrooz said. “ ose are the things that really matter,” he said. “If those institutions are failing, so too are our kids.” is story is from e Colorado Sun, a journalist-owned news outlet based in Denver and covering the state. For more, and to support e Colorado Sun, visit coloradosun. com. e Colorado Sun is a partner in the Colorado News Conservancy, owner of Colorado Community Media. a wide variety of colors and is now being offered to the local market. Your home can be a showplace in your vicinity. We will make it worth your while if we can use your home.

On average, there are about 290 children and teens serving sentences in youth corrections on any given day, 89% of them boys. e average length of stay is about 18 months.

Juvenile criminal case lings increased by 15% last year in Colorado.