A clarification of the crime map

This is just a clarification as to what kinds of crime the map covers. The North Jersey crime map consists of the following offenses:

Assault: This is a crime in which physical force is used to injure another. This can include beating, striking, stabbing, pushing, or slashing another. A subcategory is motor vehicle assault, which comprises intentional assaults with a car, or hit-and-runs. Fatal assaults are assaults in which the crime results in the victim’s death.

Robbery: A crime in which force or violence is used to steal money or other items of value from a person. Examples are robberies at gunpoint, robberies at knifepoint, robberies with the threat of violence, robberies with a physical confrontation with the victim, and the subcategory of carjackings, which is the robbery of a vehicle by force.

Shooting: A serious crime in which a firearm is used to injure a person, or an attempted shooting where a firearm is brandished with intent to menace or fire. This includes cases where the gun jams, where shots are exchanged but no one is injured, and when guns are brandished to intimidate or threaten with force, separate from robbery. Fatal shootings are shootings that result in the death of a victim.

Burglary: A crime where someone enters a house, office, building or car unlawfully and steals items. Burglaries in which nothing is stolen are not counted in the crime map.
Stolen vehicle: A crime in which a car, bike, motorcycle, truck or other vehicle is stolen, usually by use of burglary.

Other: This is a very broad category, made up of many different offenses. Included is arson, distribution of a controlled substance, fraud, kidnapping, larceny, lewd acts, manslaughter, prostitution, sexual assault, and weapons offenses, among others. Manslaughter is arguably the most serious of these, as it results in a victim’s death, though death was not the perpetrator’s intent.


What the map DOESN’T cover is simple possession of controlled substance, shoplifting, minor larceny, burglaries with nothing stolen, criminal mischief, DWI, and most nonviolent crime. The map was designed to be about serious crime, not teenagers busted with weed and petty theft.

On another note, I’ve been working on studies of organized crime, as well as high-crime neighborhoods in North Jersey. Coming up soon!


Now for crime during the last few days:

Down in Newark, a breakthrough was made in the May 17 murder of DeSean Hamilton. The killers were tracked down to a house in Irvington, and the police arrested them and their acquaintances with two silenced assault weapons and handguns on them. Meanwhile, the Newark police continued to crack down on crime, with the breakup of an open-air market in Weequahic. A woman and teenage boy were arrested with fifty-nine decks of heroin, with a 12-gauge shotgun and 9mm assault rifle loaded with hollow-points close at hand to defend their corner.

Deeper into Essex County, a Wednesday murder became the newest addition to the homicide map. Dana Cook, a 44-year-old woman, was living in a vacant house in Orange, when the apparent rightful owner arrived and argued with her. In the dispute, he allegedly stabbed her to death, and then fled. The police tracked him down with a bloodhound, and he was placed under arrest.

Bergen County had two shocking crimes this week, the first in Hackensack, where a hit-and-run left a man dead, and the driver at large. The second was early Wednesday morning in River Edge, where in an instance of road rage, the driver of the 168 NJ Transit bus got into an altercation with a motorist on Kinderkamack Road. The motorist, a white male in his 20s, pulled out a silver handgun and brandished it at the bus driver before fleeing the scene. It’s doubtful that he will be apprehended.

In the most publicized crime so far, early yesterday morning a man from Sleepy Hollow NY was pumping gas in an industrial section of Jersey City when two men approached him, one possibly wielding a shotgun. The man possibly tried to escape in his van, but the robbers opened fire and the man was shot twice. He crashed the van, and with gunshot wounds in the forearm and stomach, was left on the street critically injured. He currently clings to life inside a Jersey City hospital, his survival in the balance.

Check back for more updates, as well as the different features on neighborhoods and gangs.