Reducing Youth Violence through Community-Level Prevention

Strategic Insights -

Investigators have published a new report on Legal Issues-Criminal Justice, highlighting the impact of the Communities That Care (CTC) approach in reducing youth violence in two Denver, Colorado communities. The research, funded by the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention, aimed to prevent and reduce youth violence in urban marginalized communities. The study found that the CTC approach was associated with a reduction in youth arrests for violent offenses in one community, while no intervention effects were detected in the other.

Key Takeaways:

  • The Communities That Care (CTC) approach was effective in reducing youth violence in one of the two Denver, Colorado communities studied.
  • The CTC system was implemented in two communities experiencing high levels of youth violence, with a primary aim of reducing youth violence.
  • The research used a quasi-experimental approach, including Interrupted Time Series (ITS) and Difference in Differences (DiD) analyses with synthetic controls, to examine the impact of the CTC system on youth violence outcomes.
  • The primary violence outcome was official youth (aged 10-24) annual arrests for violent offenses, measured for five years prior to and five years after the intervention.
  • The ITS results showed an intervention effect in Community B, with lower arrest rates early in the intervention period, indicating that the mobilization period was impacting the intervention community with respect to arrest rates.
  • The DiD analysis with a synthetic control confirmed that the arrest rates in Community B were significantly lower than in the synthetic control community during the intervention years.
  • The CTC approach and the community-level prevention system implemented in Community B was associated with a reduction in youth arrests for violent offenses during the intervention period.
  • Additional research is needed to understand why the intervention was effective in Community B, but not Community A.
  • The study highlights the importance of community-level prevention systems in reducing youth violence in urban marginalized communities.

Statistics:

  • The CTC system was implemented in two communities experiencing high levels of youth violence.
  • The research used a quasi-experimental approach, including Interrupted Time Series (ITS) and Difference in Differences (DiD) analyses with synthetic controls.
  • The primary violence outcome was official youth (aged 10-24) annual arrests for violent offenses, measured for five years prior to (2012-2016) and five years after (2017-2021) the intervention.
  • The ITS results showed an intervention effect in Community B, with lower arrest rates early in the intervention period.
  • The DiD analysis with a synthetic control confirmed that the arrest rates in Community B were significantly lower than in the synthetic control community during the intervention years (-14.6%, p < 0.05).

Sources:

  • Effects of the Communities That Care (Ctc) Prevention System On Youth Violence Outcomes In Two Violence-impacted Denver Communities. American Journal of Criminal Justice, 2025.
  • NewsRx. New Criminal Justice Data Have Been Reported by Researchers at University of Colorado Boulder [Effects of the Communities That Care (Ctc) Prevention System On Youth Violence Outcomes In Two Violence-impacted Denver Communities]. Medical Patent Law Weekly. August 13, 2025; p 72.