Violent crimes on BART jumped 69 percent in the past 10 years, even as they fell 7 percent across California during the same period, according to figures released this month by the state Department of Justice.

Safety on BART is once again a paramount issue for customers after Sunday night’s killing of 18-year-old Nia Wilson on the train platform at MacArthur Station in Oakland. A transient parolee with a troubled history was arrested Monday and is expected to appear in court Wednesday to face charges that he stabbed Wilson in the neck in an unprovoked attack.

The state statistics show BART recorded 428 violent crimes in 2017. That’s 293 robberies, 130 assaults, five rapes and no homicides, compared to 254 total violent crimes in 2007.

Now Playing:

Some of the added crime on BART — though not all of it — can be attributed to a roughly 22 percent increase in ridership in the past decade.

When factoring in population growth, California’s per-capita violent crime rate fell 14 percent in the past decade.

The trend on the BART system appears to be holding strong this year. Internal agency data show BART reported 222 violent crimes in the first six months of 2018, a slight uptick from the 218 crimes in the same period last year. At this pace, BART may establish a modern high mark for violent crimes.

And the agency is now investigating three possible homicides in the past week. The state figures show killings on BART are rare, with just half a dozen from 2007 to 2017.

Demian Bulwa is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: dbulwa@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @demianbulwa