New jersey murder rate increased 25% in 2020 and is still climbing in 2021

TRENTON, NJ – The Federal Bureau of Investigation on Monday released its annual FBI Crime Report on Monday. While the overall rate of violent crimes in New Jersey has decreased, you’re more likely to be murdered in New Jersey now, more than you were two years ago.

Last year, New Jersey saw a 25% increase in the homicide rate. New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy has blamed the increase in murders on global warming.

“Everybody wants to get out there and unshackle themselves from this pandemic,” Murphy said of the rise in violent crime across the state. “Listen, it’s not specific to Atlantic City. This is not unique to New Jersey. There’s a lot of behavior right now. I suspect partly due to coming out from the pandemic; 95 degree, high humidity weather does not help. There’s a lot of kinetic activity in the state right now and in the country.”

New Jersey jumped from 3 murders per 100,000 people in 2019 to 3.7 in 2020, following a nationally increasing trending pattern.

New Jersey State Police Superintendent Patrick Callahan echoed the governor’s sentiment, saying pandemic stresses are a contributing factor in the sharp increase.

“I do think the pandemic, the stressors caused by that, and I think at the heart of it lies illegal crime guns in the hands of violent recidivist offenders,” he said, noting that violent criminals are re-entering society under a multitude of programs that favor the criminals.

Those programs include Governor Phil Murphy’s early prisoner release program which lead to five additional murders in 2021 and the weak justice system, powered by criminal justice and bail reform that sets violent offenders free after a pretrial detention hearing.

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