FBI Report: Violent Crimes Increase In Pennsylvania, Drop In New Jersey
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- For the second year in a row, there is more violent crime in America, increasing more than %4 from last year, according to the FBI's 2016 crime report released on Monday. So how do Pennsylvania and New Jersey stack up against the rest of the nation?
New Jersey's overall violent crime rate has dropped more than 4% percent last year. Pennsylvania's has slightly increased.
According to the report, there are fewer robberies, burglaries and thefts in the Garden State - but more reported rapes.
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The stats are compiled by the FBI using police reports from 18,000 local and state departments.
"Anytime there is a call or a report of a crime, the cops roll on that, and they arrive on scene," said University of Pennsylvania Criminology professor Richard Berk, "and if there is belief that a crime has been committed, they will fill out a form called an offense form."
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Berk says the report is overly general.
"Crime is highly local," he said. "You don't want to take national statistics or even state statistics to characterize the nature of crime."
Instead, Berk says, local police should use the information to target specific areas.
"For those purposes," he said, "these data are very, very handy."