Crime is considered more severe in one part of Kent than almost anywhere else in South East England
Thanet has been revealed as one of the most crime-ravaged parts of the South East, according to a new crime map.
“Crime severity” 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.
These figures indicate that in Kent, crime is most severe in Thanet.
The district suffered the highest impact from violent crimes of any area in Kent, and the joint highest impact from sexual offences with Medway. More than two-thirds of Thanet’s overall severity score of 18.6 was comprised of these types of serious crimes.
Overall, it received the fourth-highest crime severity score of the South East, behind only Southampton (22.4), Portsmouth (20.8), and Crawley (19.6), and the 62nd highest of more than 300 community safety partnership areas in England and Wales, which are broadly comparable to council areas.
In Kent, Dartford and Gravesham was awarded the second-highest score, of 18.2, followed by Medway (17.7).
At the other end of the spectrum, Tonbridge and Malling was the safest place to live in Kent with a crime severity score of just 9.5, followed by Tunbridge Wells (10.3).
Across the whole Kent police force area, the average score is 15.2, which is below the England and Wales average.
You can see how it compares where you live using our interactive map.
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’t 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.
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.
It peaked at 16.4 in the year ending March 2023, and currently stands at 16.3.
