Crime & Safety
Violent Crime In Nutley, Belleville Remains Under National Average: FBI
Belleville, Nutley and many other New Jersey towns have been seeing a steady decline in violent crime since the 1990s.
BELLEVILLE-NUTLEY, NJ — Violent crime numbers remained lower than previous decades in many towns and cities across the nation last year, including Belleville and Nutley, federal data shows.
The FBI recently released nationwide Uniform Crime Reporting statistics for 1979 to 2025, which can be seen online here.
According to the FBI, the list of “violent crimes” includes homicide, rape, robbery and aggravated assault.
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There were 94 violent crimes reported last year in Belleville. With an estimated 38,997 residents, that would put the town’s violent crime rate at 241 per 100,000 residents: a 4.21 percent decrease from the previous year.
There were 17 violent crimes reported last year in Nutley. With an estimated 30,744 residents, that would put the town’s violent crime rate at 55.3 per 100,000 residents, a 17.6 percent increase from the previous year.
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Both towns remain significantly below national averages for violent crime.
New Jersey had a population of 9,548,215 people and saw 18,508 violent crimes last year. The state’s violent crime rate dropped from 219.7 crimes per 100,000 in 2024 to 193.8 crimes per 100,000 people in 2025: an 11.8 percent decrease.
Meanwhile, the national violent crime rate fell 9.3 percent last year, marking the largest year-to-year decline since the FBI began estimating crime trends in 1936. The United States saw an overall 327.6 violent crimes per 100,000 people in 2025.
It’s not a new trend, FBI data shows: violent crime has been steadily dropping across the nation since the early 1990s.
New Jersey’s violent crime rate peaked in 1990, when the state had a population of 7,730,188 people and saw 50,057 violent crimes: a rate of 647.6 per 100,000 people.
The national violent crime rate peaked in 1991. The United States had a population of 252,153,092 that year and saw 1,911,767 crimes: a rate of 758.2 per 100,000 people.
LOCAL CRIME STATISTICS FOR BELLEVILLE-NUTLEY
Here's a list of violent crimes per year in Belleville, as seen on the FBI database:
- 1986 - 160
- 1987 - 160
- 1988 - 142
- 1989 - 139
- 1990 - 181
- 1991 - 214
- 1992 - 211
- 1993 - 169
- 1994 - 199
- 1995 - 184
- 1996 - 173
- 1997 - 137
- 1998 - 129
- 1999 - 113
- 2000 - 119
- 2001 - 125
- 2002 - 125
- 2003 - 133
- 2004 - 101
- 2005 - 125
- 2006 - 128
- 2007 - 117
- 2008 - 118
- 2009 - 84
- 2010 - 75
- 2011 - 115
- 2012 - 71
- 2013 - 112
- 2014 - 102
- 2015 - 95
- 2016 - 62
- 2017 - 81
- 2018 - 62
- 2019 - 78
- 2020 - 41
- 2021 - 28
- 2022 - 66
- 2023 - 86
- 2024 - 95
Here's a list of violent crimes per year in Nutley (data excludes 2021 due to a transition between reporting systems):
- 1986 - 29
- 1987 - 24
- 1988 - 38
- 1989 - 58
- 1990 - 60
- 1991 - 85
- 1992 - 67
- 1993 - 77
- 1994 - 67
- 1995 - 61
- 1996 - 75
- 1997 - 40
- 1998 - 78
- 1999 - 47
- 2000 - 44
- 2001 - 42
- 2002 - 48
- 2003 - 47
- 2004 - 42
- 2005 - 23
- 2006 - 39
- 2007 - 48
- 2008 - 32
- 2009 - 25
- 2010 - 24
- 2011 - 23
- 2012 - 22
- 2013 - 20
- 2014 - 15
- 2015 - 23
- 2016 - 34
- 2017 - 22
- 2018 - 27
- 2019 - 28
- 2020 - 21
- 2021 - N/A
- 2022 - 21
- 2023 - 29
- 2024 - 14
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