The FBI’s UCS Crime Data Explorer (CDE) aims to provide transparency, create easier access, and expand awareness of criminal, and noncriminal, law enforcement data sharing; improve accountability for law enforcement; and provide a foundation to help shape public policy with the result of a safer nation.

On October 5, 2022, the FBI released detailed data on over 11 million criminal offenses reported to the Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program’s National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS) in 2021 via NIBRS, 2021, NIBRS Estimates, 2021, The Transition to the National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS) also shows a comparison of 2020 and 2021 NIBRS Estimates, and Crime in United States (CIUS), 2021.

Overall, National crime statistics were significantly up in 2020 and 2021 due to violent crime in Chicago and extremist riots in Washington, Oregon, Minnesota and other states.

New Jersey vs. Lakewood

New Jersey showed a continued trend downward across the board of reported Violent, Crime, Homicides, Burglaries and Auto Theft, notably not the trend in Hate Crimes, especially in Lakewood.

This trend also applies to Lakewood despite the local news coverage which tends to sensationalize these type of incidents.

There was an increase overall of Hate Crimes reported in the State with Lakewood leading at 87% compared to the State average of 61%. Since Lakewood has a generally higher and growing dense population, the numbers reflect the per-capita totals by comparison to the New Jersey average. Nevertheless the hate crime numbers in Lakewood average 26% higher than the state overall which is concerning. The Anti-Jewish bias attacks were committed in the vast majority by Whites which comports with incidents reported on The Lakewood Scoop.

For years, the FBI’s UCR Program has provided annual snapshots of crime in the nation. This year, users will notice a difference in the data because it was exclusively collected via NIBRS in 2021. Both the NIBRS, 2021 and CIUS, 2021 releases are based solely on these NIBRS submissions by local Police Departments.

The Lakewood, the New Jersey Police Department started reporting to the NIBRS in January 2021. Even though LPD reporting is available via NIBRS through 2020, as the LPD started reporting in January of 2021 to the system the yearly trends are viable over time and show key statistics concerning violent crime, burglaries, car thefts trending down but, notably, hate crimes against Jews trending upward.

Lakewood Crime Statistics From LPD in the Latest NIBRS Database:

87% of All Lakewood Hate Crime is Anti-Jewish

New Jersey Data:

More on the NIBRS

Together, the FBI and BJS developed and tested statistical procedures that assess the quality and completeness of NIBRS data, created methods to adjust for non-transitioned agencies, crafted estimation procedures for generating reliable and accurate national indicators as new agencies report NIBRS data, and established a semi-automated system for producing national estimates of key crime indicators on an annual basis.

The FBI’s crime statistics for 2021 confirm that violent crime continued to be a major issue in the United States, with Lakewood being a significant exception, remaining at or near the 2020 level which saw a 5.6% increase compared to 2019. Murder and non-negligent manslaughter recorded a nationwide increase of 29.4% in 2020. In 2021, the estimated number of murders saw a 4.3% increase, which did not constitute a statistically significant change from 2020 levels. It should be noted that the violent crime figures for 2020 had a significant increase over the respective value(s) reported in 2019. This factor should be taken into account when considering any increase or decrease experienced when comparing 2021 values with those from 2020.

Establishing NIBRS as the national standard for crime data provides the opportunity to know more about, and better understand, various facets of crime in our nation. NIBRS provides an avenue for the UCR Program to estimate the amount of arson committed each year, estimates on drug offenses by drug type, and victimization estimates. NIBRS also provides estimates on victim and arrestee demographics, including age, sex, and race.

Key Takeaways

While Lakewood bucks the trending statistics, overall, the analysis shows violent and property crime remained consistent between 2020 and 2021. While the aggregate estimated violent crime volume decreased 1.0 percent for the nation from 1,326,600 in 2020 to 1,313,200 in 2021, the estimated number of murders increased from 22,000 in 2020 to 22,900 in 2021. The increase of murders constitutes a 4.3 percent increase. The robbery rate decreased 8.9 percent from 2020 to 2021, which heavily contributed to the decrease in overall violent crime despite increases in murder and rape rates at the national level. It is important to note that these estimated trends are not considered statistically significant by NIBRS estimation methods. The non-significant nature of the observed trends is why, despite these described changes, the overall message is that crime remained consistent.

Highlights of NIBRS, 2021

In 2021, 11,794 law enforcement agencies whose jurisdictions covered more than 215 million United States inhabitants, submitted NIBRS data to the FBI’s UCR Program. These agencies reported 11,091,951 offenses, 58.9 percent were crimes against property, 26.5 percent were crimes against persons; and 14.6 percent were crimes against society. (Due to rounding, some percentages breakdowns may not add to 100.0 percent.) The NIBRS, 2021, report is based on data from agencies that submitted one or more months of NIBRS data.

• Victim types, collected for all reported NIBRS offenses, include individuals, businesses, institutions, or society. For 2021, the data regarding victims who were individuals revealed the following:
• Of the 8,267,845 individuals, 23.9 percent were between 26 and 35 years of age.
• A little more than half (51.1 percent) were female, 48.2 percent were male, and the unknown gender of the victims was 0.8 percent.
• Most victims (65.0 percent) were white, 25.3 percent were black or African American, 2.0 percent were Asian, 1.0 percent were American Indian or Alaska Native, and 0.2 percent were Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander. The race of unknown victims was 6.5 percent.

Known Offenders – In 2021, law enforcement identified and reported information on 8,536,946 known offenders, meaning some aspect of the suspect – such as age, gender, or race – was known.

• Of these offenders, 38.4 percent were between 21 and 35 years of age.
• By gender, most offenders (63.7 percent) were male, 24.6 percent were female, and gender for 11.7 percent was unknown.
• By race, more than half (50.8 percent) of known offenders were white, 31.0 percent were black or African American, and 2.5 percent were of other races. The race was unknown for 15.7 percent of reported known offenders.

Victim-to-Offender Relationships – Concerning the relationship of victims to known offenders, there were 2,834,861 victims of crimes against persons (e.g., murder, sex offense, assault offenses) and robbery offenses from the crimes against property category.

• More than half (50.6 percent) of the victims knew their offenders (or at least one offender when more than one was present) but did not have a familial relationship to them.
• Nearly one quarter (23.8 percent) of the victims were related to their offenders (or at least one offender when more than one was present).