New Jersey is home to some of the most affluent and safest places in the country. In fact, it’s the 12th safest state in the nation. But, like all things, there are two sides to this coin, and where there are safe places, there are also some dangerous places. Here at the Movoto Real Estate Blog it’s our job to show you both. We’ve seen the safest, and now, let’s take a look at the 10 most dangerous places in New Jersey: 1. City of Asbury Park
2. City of Atlantic City
3. City of Newark
4. City of Bridgeton
5. Township of Irvington
6. City of Woodbury
7. City of Trenton
8. City of Orange
9. City of Paterson
10. Borough of Lindenwold
If you’re surprised by this order, just keep reading. We’ll go over our methodology in the next section, and then we’ll take a more detailed look at each of these 10 most dangerous places in New Jersey.

Our Methodology

When we create a Big Deal List like this one, we know how important it is to rely solely on facts and figures rather than any biased opinions we might have, so in making this list, we went straight to the experts: the FBI. We used their 2013 Uniform Crime Report to look at all of the places in New Jersey with populations of 10,000 people or more according to these criteria:
  • Murder
  • Rape
  • Robbery
  • Assault
  • Burglary
  • Theft
  • Vehicle theft
We divided these crimes into four categories:
  • Murders
  • Violent crimes
  • Property crimes
  • Total crimes
Eliminating any places that didn’t report data to the FBI that year, we were left with a total of 234 places to look at. We then ranked each place with a score from one to 234 in all of the above categories, calculated per person, so we could better compare places of all sizes. Since there are some crimes that are more heinous than others, we weighted violent crimes, murders, and property crimes to make up 30 percent of the overall score, and total crimes to make up just 10 percent. And finally, we averaged each of these weighted scores into one overall Big Deal Score, where the lowest scores went to our most dangerous places. So that’s how we came up with these top 10 places. If you’d like to see more than just these top 10, you can head to the bottom of the post for a longer list. Otherwise, let’s start our virtual tour of the 10 most dangerous places in New Jersey.
  • This ranking is not a critique of police practices or effectiveness. It is simply an analysis of where crimes occurred.

1. Asbury Park

It isn’t often these days to find a city that’s actually declining rapidly, rather than growing, in population. But that seems to be the case in Asbury Park, going from 16,930 people in 2000 to just 15,779 in the recent 2013 FBI crime report. The reasons for this may be many, but one of them is most certainly the crime rate. In 2013, this city had the third highest number of crimes per person in the state—a total of 1,106 for its relatively small population. It also had the third most property crimes (842) and the second most violent crimes (264) per person. To top it off, six of those violent crimes were murders, giving Asbury Park the third most murders per person out of the over 230 places we looked at.

2. Atlantic City

At first we thought Asbury Park had a lot of violent crimes with 264 for its population of 15,779—but that was before we got to Atlantic City. This resort city had by far the most violent crimes per person in 2013, with a total of 685 for its population of 39,482. These violent crimes included three murders (the 18th most per person), nine rapes, 367 robberies, and 306 assaults. Additionally, Atlantic City had a high number of property crimes, with 393 burglaries, 2,011 thefts, and 71 vehicle thefts, all totalling up to 3,160, or the second highest number of crimes for the year.

3. Newark

Most people’s experience of Newark is pretty much restricted to within the walls of the airport, but for residents, it’s a whole different world out there. That’s because Newark had the ninth highest number of crimes per person in 2013 and a particularly alarming number of violent crimes, like murder. For its population of 278,246 it had a total of 3,516 violent crimes, giving it the sixth most per person. Of those 3,516 violent crimes, 112 were murders, giving it the second highest number of murders per person in the state. All of this, plus Newark’s 8,965 property crimes gave the city a total of 12,481 crimes for the year.

4. Bridgeton

In 2013, this Cumberland County city had a total of 1,526 crimes. With its population of 25,280, this meant it had the fourth highest number per person in the state. These included 1,186 property crimes and 340 violent crimes, two of which were murders, and gave it the seventh, fourth, and 16th highest number of crimes per person in these categories, respectively. With such a low total number of crimes, residents had just a 1 in 17 chance of being the victim of a crime.

5. Irvington

It’s no secret that Irvington was a key player in the crack epidemic of the 1980s, but it seems that ever since then it has been struggling with high crime rates—particularly when it comes to violent crimes. In 2013, Irvington had a total of 815 violent crimes. With its population of 54,246, this meant it had the third highest number of violent crimes per person. These included 27 rapes, 492 robberies, 279 assaults, and 17 murders—the fourth highest per person in the state. All of this plus the 21st highest number of property crimes added up to give Irvington the 10th highest number of total crimes per person in our study.

6. Woodbury

Here’s the good news: Woodbury didn’t rank quite as poorly as the rest of the places in our top 10 when it came to violent crimes per person—it had just the 22nd most. And here’s the bad news: Even though it did have just the 22nd most violent crimes per person, it had the 11th most murders, the fourth most property crimes, and all in all, the fifth most crimes per person for the year. All of this added up to a pretty high likelihood of residents being the victim of a crime. They had just a 1 in 18 chance. To put that into perspective, the safest place we looked at, Chatham Township, had a 1 in 254 chance.

7. Trenton

Trenton residents were not quite as likely to be the victims of a crime as those in our last city because the overall number of crimes per person here was lower—there were 3,443 for its population of 84,439, ranking it 12th in this category. That being said, Trenton residents aren’t necessarily safer. In fact, out of all of the places in the state they have the highest chance of being the victim of a murder. That’s because in 2013 there were 37 reported murders, giving it the most per person in the state. It also had the fifth highest number of violent crimes per person out of any place we looked at.

8. Orange

Just like Trenton before it, Orange wasn’t as bad as it could have been in terms of property crimes (it ranked 27th here), but it had a high rate of violent crimes. In 2013, Orange had a total of 377 violent crimes, which with its population of 30,952 gave it the seventh most per person. Of these violent crimes there were five rapes, 266 robberies, 100 aggravated assaults, and six murders—that’s the fifth most per person. Out of the property crimes, there were 269 burglaries, 377 thefts, and 225 vehicle thefts, adding up to a total of 1,248 for the year.

9. Paterson

This city in Passaic County had the 17th highest number of crimes per person in 2013—a total of 5,656 for its population of just over 145,000. Of these 5,656 crimes, 4,101 were property crimes, giving it the 26th most per person. They included 1,984 thefts, 1,368 burglaries, and 749 vehicle thefts. Where Paterson really did poorly, though, was in its high number of violent crimes. With a total of 1,555 for the year, 18 of which were murders, it had the eighth most per person in both categories.

10. Lindenwold

The final spot on our list goes to the Borough of Lindenwold. This community of nearly 18,000 people had a total of 655 crimes in 2013, giving it the 19th most per person. They were made up of 533 property crimes and 122 violent crimes, two of which were murders, ranking it Nos. 20, 14, and 10 in these categories, respectively. To be a bit more specific, these property crimes included 306 thefts, 200 burglaries, and 27 vehicle thefts, while the violent crimes included six rapes, 50 robberies, 64 assaults, and as mentioned above, two murders.

The Other Side of the Coin

Like we mentioned in the beginning, there are two sides to every coin, and in this case, that means that there are also some very safe places in the Garden State—places like Chatham Township and Mahwah, for example. So if you happen to be living in someplace like Asbury Park or Atlantic City and you’re looking for a change, you might want to consider moving. We’ll even help you find your new home. Most Dangerous Places In New Jersey
Who is Movoto Real Estate, you might ask? Movoto is an online real estate brokerage based in San Mateo, CA. Our blog has been recognized for its unique approach to Our blog has been recognized for its unique approach to city-based research by major news organizations around the world such as Forbes and CBS News.