KARA Signature Video (4 minute)
Public Service Announcement( 30 Second)
These are the children that will become the 8% of adolescents who commit up to 70% of all serious and violent juvenile crime. ACE research indicates that serious and violent delinquency may be concentrated in just 2-4% of families. This points to the importance of early identification through the ACE Program. We know who these children are, where they live and what they need. We have the resources to help them lead normal lives, succeed in school and become contributing members of the community.
It’s exponentially more expensive to ignore them than it is to help them. ACE research shows a strong historical pattern of criminality in families of child delinquents. Using Cohen’s estimates, we calculate the multi-generational “multiplier effect” to be between $3.4 and $11.5 million. In these families, criminality is likely to grow exponentially.
All adults are the protectors of all children.
RAMSEY COUNTY ACE study:
OVERVIEW OF A COMPREHENSIVE INTERVENTION
Hope Melton
Director
Ramsey County (MN) ACE
The ACE target population – high-risk, high-impact Child delinquents. These invisible children age 12 and under who commit chargeable offenses, are an especially high-risk population with a disproportionate impact on society.
Justice Department research shows that child delinquents are substantially more likely to be recidivists and serious, violent and chronic offenders (SVJ). This research also shows that 3 out of 5 chronic serious and violent adult offenders began their careers before age 12.
Just one of my volunteer CASA guardian ad Litem case boys cost our state over three million dollars by the time he aged out of foster care and that did not count the teacher he beat up, people he stabbed or terrible things he did to so many during the time I worked with him.
Mark Cohen, in a 1998 article titled “The Monetary Value of Saving a High-Risk Youth,” estimated that the cost to taxpayers of a single lifetime serious, violent and chronic offender is between $1.7 and $2.3 million. This cost include criminal justice, victim, drug abuse, and lost productivity costs.
ACE research shows a strong historical pattern of criminality in families of child delinquents. Using Cohen’s estimates, we calculate the multi-generational “multiplier effect” to be between $3.4 and $11.5 million. In these families, criminality is likely to grow exponentially.