Brazil, another country that has been in the news for the number of street children murdered, has a population five times greater than Colombia's and had 1,500 reports of murdered children in 1991. Colombia's criminal justice system is not equipped to handle investigations on this scale. In only 1.4 percent of child murder cases will a suspect be arrested, and in only 0.5 percent of cases will there be a trial. Children who commit murder or other crimes are hardly ever brought to justice because there is not enough space in detention centers and jails to hold them. A study by the Colombian attorney general's office says that the Medellin and Cali cartels are the groups most responsible for the murder of street children.
Police often ignore, privately endorse, or participate in the murders.
The street children, who are estimated to be up to seventy percent of the homeless population in Bogota, have been abandoned by parents or have run away from their homes, trying to escape abuse. Many are drug addicted, and rely on purse snatchings or prostitution to get along.