Assessing Crime At Rutgers–Camden
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By: Angelina Cheng
On February 13, 2024, Cooper Hospital had reported a gunshot injury sustained by an unknown
male victim. Upon further investigation, it was discovered that the male victim had gotten into an altercation with a male assailant, in which the assailant had fired a weapon and left a non-fatal wound.
According to the RUPD’s Daily Crime and Safety Log, the crime had occurred in the afternoon in Lot
C17, the road and parking lot behind the Campus Center. The assailant was caught by the U.S.
Marshals Service on February 16, 2024 and charged with Attempted Murder, several counts of
possession of a weapon, and Aggravated Assault by Pointing a Firearm.
Although this was the only incident involving attempted murder around campus since the
beginning of the year, the crime log contains nine pages of incidents around campus since
January first, with many of the incidents maintaining an open case status as of the writing of this article. Coinciding with campus crime, Camden itself has a crime rate of 44 per one thousand annually compared to New Jersey’s rate of 16 per one thousand.
Upon interviewing a Rutgers housing student who chose to be anonymous, they confirmed their
awareness of crime rates in Camden through RUPD alerts and the news–stating that they
believed crime in Camden was above average for an urban setting but less severe than a major
city such as Philadelphia. When asked about the shooting, they stated “I actually did hear the
shooting…it woke me up and I almost immediately knew they were gunshots. I was worried for
the rest of the day and didn’t feel safe…but barely any of my peers or staff discussed it and [it has]
basically went under the radar since.” Through further discussion of their opinion on safety and
RUPD, they revealed that they generally felt unsafe due to previous discriminatory actions
against them since moving on campus. According to them, “I believe all safety departments
[across Rutgers and Camden] need to address the actual danger of Camden rather than worrying
about addressing the stereotypes against Camden…the college doesn’t care about our safety as
much anymore [since enrolling], but students need to be protected just as much as Camden
residents.”
The anonymous student also mentioned that their opinion on this matter partially stems from
their own experiences, and the experiences of several people they know, who have been assaulted on campus with little justice being served. On the Rutgers–Camden campus alone, sexual assault
and domestic violence cases have increased between 2020 and 2023, according to the Rutgers
crime statistics.
The crime rates in Camden, as a whole, have dropped throughout the years. The murder rate
per 10,000 people in Camden between 2012 and 2023 dropped from 8.7 to 3.9. Additionally,
2012 was marked as the year with the highest crime in the twenty-first century, and crime
has decreased by over 40 percent since then. With the steady decline of crime in Camden
throughout the twenty-first century, the question now is how the city of Camden and the county will continue to aid in this decline.
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