The 30 NJ towns with the highest violent crime rates - NJ.com

Posted October 04, 2017 at 07:00 AM | Updated October 04, 2017 at 07:52 AM

By Disha Raychaudhuri | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com

Violent crime in New Jersey decreased for the fifth-straight year in 2016, a stark contrast with the rest of the country, which saw violence increase yet again in large part due to a spike in killings in some major cities, according to the FBI's most recent annual crime report.

Nationally, violent crimes shot up by 4.1 percent last year and homicides rose by 8.6 percent. This came after the surge in 2015, when violent crimes had increased by 3.9 percent and homicide rate soared to 10.8 percent.

Find out if your city or town is among those with the highest violent crime rates.

A note about the data: The violent crime rate for municipalities equals the number of offenses per 10,000 residents. Violent crime includes murder, non-negligent manslaughter, forcible rape, robbery and aggravated assault. Only cities and towns above the median population of 9,549 were included, as lower population areas can skew rates higher. Only municipalities that provided data to the FBI were included. For example, there was no data for Atlantic City.

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30. Jackson Township

Decrease: 60.37%

Violent crime rate: 2.29, per 10,000 people

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29. Middletown

Decrease: 31.95%

Violent crime rate: 2.57, per 10,000 people

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28. Wayne Township

Increase: 6.53%

Violent crime rate: 3.08, per 10,000 people