Leeds has one of UK's highest crime rates - and serious offences are a major problem

Leeds has one of the highest crime rates in the country - and the offences committed are likely to be much more serious as well.

In 2019/20, there were 131 crimes recorded for every 1,000 people living in Leeds. That compares to 89 per 1,000 across England and Wales as a whole.

As well as this, the area has a Crime Severity Score of 19.6, above the national average of 13.8 for England and Wales.

Leeds was also in the top 20 areas with the highest score, according to analysis by the Office for National Statistics.

The Crime Severity Score aims to take into account both the number and severity of crimes in an area.

Areas where more serious crimes are committed - such as those that attract jail sentences - are likely to get higher scores, even if, overall, fewer crimes are recorded than in other areas.

To calculate the score, crimes are given points based on the sentences imposed - more severe offences, such as murder (7,973 points per offence), attract more points than less severe crimes, like cannabis possession (two points per offence).

The number of each offence in the area is multiplied by its points, all the offences are then added together and that number divided by the population in the area.

The severity score can also be applied to different types of crime - to compare not only whether an area sees more of a particular type of crime, but whether those are potentially more serious (for example, where violence is used).

In Leeds, violence against the person scored 5.5, while sexual offences scored 5.6, both above the national average.

Across England and Wales, the highest severity score for all crimes was recorded in Westminster, at 42.1, three times higher than the overall score of 13.8 for England and Wales.

After Westminster, Blackpool followed with the second highest overall severity score at 25.7, while in Lincoln it was 24.9.

Nationally, sexual offences had the highest severity score, at 4.2, even higher than violence against the person, which was given a score of 3.9.

Lincoln saw the highest severity score when it comes to sexual offences, at 10.1, while Blackpool saw the highest severity score for violence against the person, at 8.9.

Experts, however, think the Crime Severity Score system is flawed because it does not focus on harm to a victim.

According to a study published in the Cambridge Journal of Evidence-Based Policing, sentencing guidelines require judges to take into account the defendant’s prior criminal record as an “aggravating factor.”

This means that, on average, the longer and more serious a defendant’s criminal history, the longer the sentence for each new crime can be and, as a consequence, the higher the severity score will be.

The authors of the paper said: “A murder victim is just as dead when they are killed by a first offender as by a repeat offender. Yet the sentence for the murder may be higher for the latter.”

However, the system is still considered by the Office for National Statistics as “experimental”, meaning the statistics are still in development.