By Philip Sean Curran, Staff Writer
Crime continued to fall in Princeton, as 2016 saw a nearly 11-percent decrease at a time when murders, rapes, robberies and other crimes rose in Mercer County., Princeton had two rapes, zero robberies, 44 assaults, 34 burglaries, 194 larceny-thefts and five motor vehicle thefts, all of which contributed to 10.6-percent-decrease in crime compared to 2015, figures at the State Police showed. There were no homicides. Princeton has been trending in the right direction, with crime down by 21.5 percent since 2014., The numbers were found in a report the State Police compiles from data from law enforcement agencies throughout New Jersey. The declines in Princeton occurred despite a small rise in crime in the rest of the county, which had a 1.7 percent increase., Nearly every crime category, except for motor vehicle thefts, was up countywide compared to 2015. Mercer had 25 murders, up from 20. As it does year after year, Trenton accounted for the majority of those offenses, 21. Ewing [2] East Windsor [1] and Hamilton [1] made up the rest., Rapes and attempted rapes rose to 107 compared to 92, and robberies were up to 587, compared to 540. In particular, the number of gun-related robberies was up by 9 percent, 205 to 188. Motor vehicle thefts fell to 541 compared to 712., In terms of neighboring towns to Princeton, crime rose in Plainsboro and West Windsor but was down in Montgomery., As for other parts of Princeton, crime also fell at Princeton University by 25.3 percent, despite slight increases in some violent offenses, data showed. University officials reported three rapes and five robberies in 2016, compared to none in either category in 2015. In addition, motor vehicle thefts rose to 14 from 10., Princeton Police Chief Nicholas K. Sutter and Mayor Liz Lempert could not be reached for comment., Overall, New Jersey saw crime drop 6.7 percent, part of a larger, national pattern of crime on the decline since 1990, said one expert who studies the issue., “We’re at record lows across the board, across the country,” said Victor Thompson, a criminal justice professor at Rider University. “There’s been some uptick in a few places, largely a few metropolitan areas.”, Homicide rates, nationally, are at levels not seen since the 1960s, he said. In New Jersey, demographics begin to explain why crime is down in a state with an aging population., “Young adults are the people who are the primary drivers of crime. And so if those numbers are going down, I would expect to see some declines in crime rates too,” he said., “I don’t know of any studies on this right now in New Jersey, per se,” he continued. “But it could have something to do with the fact that there’s just fewer people in the prime ages of people who commit crimes, between the ages of 14 and 22. And if those populations are getting smaller, crime rates always go down.”, Census data for New Jersey estimated the population of people under 18 at 22.3 percent in 2015, compared to 23.5 percent in 2010. By comparison the number of people 65 and older is growing, to an estimated 15 percent in 2015 compared to 13.5 percent in 2010.
