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England’s most criminal places mapped – and two Yorkshire cities among worst(Image: Reach PLC)<\/p>\nThe most dangerous – and safest – places to live have been mapped.England’s most criminal places mapped – and two Yorkshire cities among worst(Image: Reach PLC)<\/p>\n
The most crime-ravaged areas in England and Wales have been revealed – and two Yorkshire cities are among the worst 10.<\/p>\n
According to the figures, Middlesborough in North Yorkshire<\/a> was the most crime-ravaged local authority area outside central London behind Blackpool. It was given a crime<\/a>-severity score of 29.9 mainly due to high levels of violence and sexual offending.<\/p>\n \u201cCrime severity\u201d scores measure the seriousness of wrongdoing in each area by examining the type of offending as well as the volume, so a murder or a rape counts much more heavily than a minor theft. The most dangerous place in the country was Blackpool, which suffered the highest levels of violent crimes and sexual offences of any council area.<\/p>\n The next most criminal area in Yorkshire was Bradford<\/a>. The city suffered the highest impact from violent crimes and sexual offences of any area in Yorkshire.<\/a> More than two-thirds of its overall severity score of 25.8 was made up by these types of serious crimes.<\/p>\n Overall, it received the 9th highest crime severity score of more than 300 community safety partnership areas in England and Wales, which are broadly comparable to council areas, and the 5th highest, excluding central London.<\/p>\n Compare how dangerous your area is to live in in the interactive map below.<\/p>\n Ranked at 16th most crime-ravaged, Leeds<\/a> was the next most dangerous Yorkshire place to live with a high overall score of 23.5, which gave it the dubious honour of the 9th highest outside central London. Doncaster was the fourth highest in Yorkshire with an overall score of 23.1<\/p>\n North Yorkshire was the safest place to live in the county, with a crime severity score of just 7.1, showing residents are far less likely to suffer from crime than city dwellers.<\/p>\n Of the three police force areas in Yorkshire, West Yorkshire<\/a> had the highest average score (22.4). South Yorkshire<\/a> had an average score of 20.6, while North Yorkshire<\/a> (including York) had by far the lowest score of 9.8.<\/p>\n Across the whole of Yorkshire and the Humber, the average score is 19.4, which is well above the national average (16.3).<\/p>\n Crime severity scores may offer a truer picture of the impact of crime in each area than crime rates, which are useful in measuring the volume of crime, but don\u2019t distinguish between different types of offences. They are influenced by the scale of punishment imposed on wrongdoers, so crimes causing a high degree of harm are assigned much higher scores than low-level offences, such as criminal damage.<\/p>\n Get all the latest crime and court stories in Yorkshire news straight to your mobile via WhatsApp by clicking here<\/a>.<\/p>\n Whether it’s breaking news straight from a crime scene, live updates from big court cases happening in our region or police appeals, you’ll get it all.<\/p>\n If you don\u2019t like our community, you can leave any time. We also treat members to special offers, promotions, and adverts from us and our partners. Read our privacy notice here<\/a>.<\/p>\n When crime severity scores were first introduced in the year ending March 2003, England and Wales was given an overall score of 15.9. The scores then fell consistently down to a low of 9.3 in the year ending March 2013, but then began rising each year apart from a dip during the pandemic.<\/p>\n It peaked at 16.4 in the year ending March 2023, and currently stands at 16.3.<\/p>\n![](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/0_image-12.png\")
Crime severity in England and Wales over the years(Image: Reach PLC)<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/2_Ridgeway-live-blog-police.jpg\")
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