Crime on rise in Sussex and Warren

Crime on rise in Sussex and Warren
State Police statistics show a trend of decline elsewhere in Jersey
Friday, July 22, 2005
BY JIM LOCKWOOD AND MIKE FRASSINELLI
Star-Ledger Staff

While crime in New Jersey generally fell, Sussex and Warren counties bucked that trend, according to annual figures released yesterday by the New Jersey State Police.

Sussex had a 15 percent rise in criminal offenses from 2003 to 2004, and Warren's figure rose 5 percent. Statewide, crime dropped 4 percent, according to the Uniform Crime Report.

A 13 percent hike in juvenile arrests in Sussex helped fuel rising crime there, where adult arrests rose 3 percent. Barbara Adolphe, executive director of the nonprofit Center for Prevention and Counseling in Newton, which runs various youth and adult programs, said a growing drug problem feeds into other crimes, such as burglaries and thefts, which also were up big in Sussex, at 25 percent and 17 percent, respectively.

"It's a warning sign," Adolphe said of juvenile arrests. "It's saying, "Here's a trend, this is going up, and what are you going to do about it?' It's a matter of pulling together as a community and saying what are we going to do to prevent our kids from going down this path and committing more crime."
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Warren County Prosecutor Thomas S. Ferguson said the case of the serial killer was an unusual circumstance and that the increases were too small to indicate a trend.

More: http://www.nj.com/news/ledger/sussex/index.ssf?/base/news-0/112201319373000.xml&coll=1