Crime & Safety

NJ Crime Rose 3% in 2011, Report Shows

Murder, rape and robberies up, aggravated assaults down from 2010

Overall crime in New Jersey rose 3 percent from 2010 to 2011, but violent crimes remained the same, according to Attorney General Jeffrey Chiesa.

Those violent crimes, which are classified as murder, rape, robbery and aggravated assault made up for 27,173 — or 13 percent — of the state’s overall crimes, according to the NJ State Police's 2011 Uniform Crime Report.

Overall, there were 217,073 reported crimes in New Jersey in 2011.

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Murder rose 2 percent from 2010 to 2011, from 372 reported incidents to 380. Rape reports rose from 985 to 991, and robberies had the biggest jump from 11,859 to 12,216, the report showed.

Aggravated assault dropped 3 percent from 13,958 reports to 13,586.

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July had the highest number of reported violent crimes, the report showed, with 2,563 offenses. February had the lowest number of reported violent crimes with 1,644.

“The latest crime data shows a slight increase in the overall crime rate in New Jersey,” Chiesa said in a statement.

“Although the factors that influence crime trends are complex and interwoven, we remain committed to working harder and smarter to combat crime and protect New Jersey citizens during what remains a tough economic time for much of our state and our nation.”

According to the report, there was a crime committed once every 2 minutes and 25 seconds in 2011, and males accounted for 69 percent of the arrests made.


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