📉🚔 NEW FBI DATA SHOWS VIOLENT CRIME CONTINUES LONG-TERM DECLINE IN NEW JERSEY
New Federal Bureau of Investigation data shows violent crime in New Jersey dropped nearly 12 percent in 2025. This continues a long-term downward trend, with the state's violent crime rate falling roughly 70 percent since its peak in 1990.
📍 NEW JERSEY — 2025 CRIME DATA
Newly released FBI crime statistics show that violent crime in New Jersey declined significantly in 2025, continuing a broader downward trend that has been underway since the 1990s.
According to the FBI's Uniform Crime Reporting data, New Jersey recorded 18,508 violent crimes in 2025, compared with 20,876 in 2024.
That represents an approximately 11.8% decrease in the state's violent crime rate, which fell from 219.7 per 100,000 residents in 2024 to 193.8 per 100,000 in 2025.
📊 THE LONG-TERM TREND
New Jersey's violent crime rate remains substantially below its peak in the early 1990s.
In 1990, the state recorded 50,057 violent crimes, with a rate of 647.6 per 100,000 residents.
By comparison, the 2025 rate of 193.8 per 100,000 represents a decline of roughly 70% from the 1990 peak.
🇺🇸 The decline extends beyond New Jersey. Nationally, the FBI reported a 9.3% decrease in the violent crime rate in 2025, representing the largest year-to-year decline in the nation's violent crime rate since the FBI began estimating crime trends in 1936.
🏙️ CRIME DECLINES ACROSS NJ COMMUNITIES
Several major New Jersey communities have also reported significant reductions in violent crime.
Newark has reported a substantial decline in homicides, while authorities in Camden County have reported decreases in both total and violent crime during recent reporting periods.
📌 CRIME DATA VS. PUBLIC PERCEPTION
While official crime statistics have generally shown long-term declines, public perceptions do not always reflect those trends.
Research from the Pew Research Center has found that Americans frequently report believing crime is increasing nationally, even during periods when measured crime rates have declined.
A Rutgers-Eagleton poll has similarly found that New Jersey residents have differing perceptions of neighborhood safety and crime trends.
The latest FBI figures provide another data point in the decades-long history of violent crime in New Jersey and across the United States.
📰 Garden State News Network Informing & Connecting New Jersey.