Is New Jersey safe? With a population of 9.24 million, New Jersey, like many other densely populated jurisdictions, can be prone to crime.
Crime affects families, neighborhoods, communities, and nations and exacts a steep price. Some crimes, especially violent ones, cause emotional and social distress and physical harm like injury, premature death, disability, post-traumatic stress disorder, anxiety, and depression.
Crimes lead to the distraction from everyday life activities.
Additionally, since crime threatens individuals’ safety, it forces people to change healthy lifestyle habits like walking, riding a bike, or taking a stroll in a local park. This leads to a more sedentary lifestyle which has been proven to cause a myriad of health problems.
The ultimate cost of crime may be death, but for many others, crime brings long-term loss of property, income, and medical expenses.
Crime harms society and leads to extra funds for treatment programs in courts/jails for prisoners. The amount and time spent on offenders affects the productivity of the entire community.
In this article we will explore crime statistics in NJ for January 2022.
Understanding crimes
Crimes depend on the absence of witnesses, opportunity, and motivation.
However, due to the covid-19 restrictions and lockdowns, many criminals lacked an ideal opportunity. Consequently, outdoor crimes like robberies, traffic offenses, burglaries, aggravated assaults, and sexual offenses reduced since the onset of Covid.
Additionally, as NJ residents increasingly work remotely, criminals have lacked opportunities to rob and commit other crimes. For example, burglaries have become less desirable due to many people being at home.
However, indoor crimes like domestic violence, murder, rapes, and homicides increased due to financial constrains, unemployment, and marital struggles have increased the number of domestic violence, homicide, and even sexual assaults.
Crime statistics in New Jersey
Property crime
Property crime comprises larceny-theft, arson, burglary, and motor vehicle theft. The main purpose of such crime includes taking away money and house properties without threat or force against individuals present.
In 2022, New Jersey recorded a property crime rate of 27.1%.
Car crimes
Car theft rose by 21% in the period 2021-2022.
Car crimes have increased as people are moving a lot, thus creating an opportunity and lack of witnesses. Also, more people have been avoiding public transport and increasingly using their cars that are left in parking lots unattended for many hours, attracting criminals.
Most car theft involves breaking to steal unattended properties such as laptops, purses and other personal effects. Some criminals steal cars with the intention to commit further crimes such robberies and carjacking or even sell spare parts.
Burglaries
Most burglaries happen at night, and they account for only 14% of the property crimes.
Violent crimes
Violent crime is composed of four offenses: murder and non-negligent manslaughter, forcible rape, robbery, and aggravated assault. New Jersey violent crime stands at 26.3, based on the FBI index of 1-100, with 1 being low and 100 being high levels of crime.
Homicides and non-fatal shootings have increased. This may possibly be attributed to mental breakdown, aggravated by stress, fear, isolation, and the loss of jobs experienced over the past two years.
Anything that increases stress and frustration increases the likelihood of committing violent crimes. For example, scarcity of community resources, such as experienced during the pandemic, can result in non-fatal shootings and assaults.
Domestic violence
In New Jersey, domestic violence stands at 35.8% against women and 27.40% against men.
Domestic violence occurs in a home setting, and it can happen to anyone regardless of age.
Idleness, mental illness, failed marriages, and financial stress are just some of the factors that trigger domestic violence, and with many people isolated at their homes, environmental/social factors like COVID-19 have added to the stress and tension in relationships, thus increasing domestic violence.
Furthermore, most abusers engage in drug abuse, thus increasing their likelihood to commit sexual, emotional, verbal, and physical abuse against children, relatives, and spouses.
Victims of domestic abuse can develop chronic health problems, physical disabilities, and severe psychological disorders.
Unfortunately, many domestic crimes go unreported making it difficult to fully capture the extent of the crimes.
In case of violent crime like rape or domestic violence, don’t suffer or fear your offender’s threats; file a police report and seek the legal advice of criminal lawyers in NJ. They will advise and protect you from further violence and, if needed, get you shelter in a safe place.
Remember, don’t tolerate domestic abuse and incest—report such crimes.
Online scams and crimes
While the economic decline has affected everyone globally, criminals have opted for online crimes and scams to defraud people.
Unlike other crimes, online fraud has a complex structure operated by skilled individuals. From sextortion/romance scams to commerce fraud, online swindlers have taken advantage of innocent individuals to create wealth. Other cybercrime includes
- Data theft
- Online ID theft
- Computer intrusions
- Internal compromises
- Cyber terrorism
- Accounts hijacking
- Unlawful access to media social accounts
- Email accounts/social networking intrusions
- Cyber stalking
According to the latest statistics, there was a whopping 70% increase in cyber crimes in 2021 in the US compared to 2020, with an estimated loss of over $5.8 billion.
Conclusion
Crime is, sadly, a part of our society and its steep cost and affects everyone. While some crimes have short-term effects, many others have long-term, and often life-long effects. As such, every New Jersey resident needs to become their brother’s keeper by reporting crime regardless of whether the perpetrator is a stranger or resides within your home.
Remember crime affects everyone directly or indirectly, speak out and help reduce the above statistics and help New Jersey retain its crown as the safest state in the US.
