Violence in Colorado: The fight to end mass shootings

With new funding from the government, the Center for the Study and Prevention of Violence(CSPV) will initiate a violence prevention project at CU Boulder.

Last September, the Center for the Study and Prevention of Violence (CSPV) at the University of Colorado Boulder received a $1.2 million grant from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. In partnership with the CU Boulder Police Department, CSPV plans to use the funds to launch a campaign on campus next fall semester that will focus on preventing future events of mass violence. 

CSPV is an organization that focuses on preventing violent conflicts in communities across the state. By implementing programs and training for staff and faculty of local schools, CSPV is able to not only raise awareness about the signs of a potentially harmful individual, but also teacht the community how to respond in a conducive manner. 

CSPV was founded after the mass shooting at Columbine High School in 1999. Since then, the number of shootings in the state of Colorado has only increased, with numerous examples in the last year alone. 

The March 2021 King Soopers shooting in Boulder made national headlines. The most recent shooting in Colorado took place in Aurora in November, when multiple teens were arrested after a fight escalated in the parking lot of a public high school. 

The CSPV’s campaign will be led by Senior Research Associate in Violence Prevention Dr. Sarah Goodrum, who has years of experience in the fields of sociology and criminology. Before her work in Boulder, Goodrum was the department chair in both criminology and criminal justice at the University of Northern Colorado and in anthropology and sociology at Centre College.

In her upcoming project, Goodrum will emphasize the importance of shifting the approach of violence prevention from condemning the potential instigator to getting them the help they need.  

“We want to shift the focus to ‘these are people that are crying out for help,’” said Goodrum. “Our goal is to provide them with the resources and assessments needed to get them the help that would benefit them.”

Another goal of this project is to push the message that the safety of the community is everyone’s responsibility, not just law enforcement’s. 

Goodrum is currently working out the finer details of this long-term project. Some of the most important factors include establishing the campaign’s presence on social media and deciding which university department will be responsible for conveying the message.

“The person or organization disseminating the message can impact how that information is received … part of the work we’ll be doing is piloting the social media messages with small groups and looking at who is the ideal sender of this message,” she said.   

Colorado is no stranger to violence, but as more attention is brought to these issues and more prevention methods are practiced, there may be hope for a better track record in the future.