Are you living or working in one of Wales' crime hotspots?
Recorded crime is on the rise in Wales and in the first month of 2019 more than 25,000 cases were logged by police .
Those figures have now been turned into an interactive map - which show the true extent of what's happening on your doorstep.
The map allows you to zoom in on towns, cities and even individual streets and clicking on the small dots will provide more information about the crime.
The colours on the map represent the four Welsh police forces. South Wales Police is in blue, Gwent Police is purple; Dyfed-Powys Police is orange and North Wales Police is red. Sexual offences and violent crimes are grouped together and have therefore not been included in the map to avoid identifying potential victims of sexual offences.
Below the map, we've also looked into the most common crimes as well as which council area has the highest figures as well.
What was the most common crime?
In January 25,148 crimes were recorded by police in Wales.
Out of those, 8,014 were violence and sexual offences. But because of the way police categorises offences, it's impossible to tell how many cases were violent crimes and how many were sexual offences.
The second highest recorded crime was anti-social behaviour, with 4,864 incidents recorded.
What were the other crimes?
Anti-social behaviour |
4864 |
| Bicycle theft | 200 |
| Burglary | 1208 |
| Criminal damage and arson | 2710 |
| Drugs | 800 |
| Other crime | 496 |
| Other theft | 1770 |
| Possession of weapons | 103 |
| Public order | 1869 |
| Robbery | 82 |
| Shoplifting | 1562 |
| Theft from the person | 119 |
| Vehicle crime | 1351 |
| Violence and sexual offences | 8014 |
What do different crimes mean?
Violent crime covers a wide range of offences from minor assaults such as pushing and shoving that result in no physical harm through to serious incidents of wounding and homicide.
Sexual offences include rape, sexual assault and unlawful sexual activity against adults and children, sexual grooming and indecent exposure.
Burglary is typically defined as the unlawful entry into almost any structure (not just a home or business) with the intent to commit any crime inside.
No physical breaking and entering is required - the offender may simply trespass through an open door. Unlike robbery which involves use of force or fear to obtain another person's property, there is usually no victim present during a burglary.
The 29 alleged criminals most wanted by police in South Wales
Criminal damage is the intentional and malicious damage to the home, other property or vehicles and includes graffiti.
Arson is the act of deliberately setting fire to property, including buildings and vehicles.
Other theft is a broad category, which covers theft not defined by other categories (i.e burglary, vehicle theft etc.,).
Shoplifting involves taking goods from a shop without paying for them first.
Public order offences can be anything from violent disorder, affray, disorderly behaviour or drunk and disorderly - basically, anything that could cause anyone present to be afraid.
Which local authority areas saw the most crime?
The number of recorded crimes per Welsh local authority, according to police data, can be seen below:
- Blaenau Gwent - 692
- Bridgend - 969
- Caerphilly - 1,341
- Cardiff - 4,090
- Carmarthenshire - 1,306
- Ceredigion - 449
- Conwy - 959
- Denbighshire - 867
- Gwynedd - 882
- Isle of Anglesey - 474
- Merthyr Tydfil - 537
- Monmouthshire - 487
- Neath Port Talbot - 844
- Newport - 1,695
- Pembrokeshire - 832
- Powys - 672
- Rhondda Cynon Taff - 1,770
- Swansea - 1,995
- The Vale of Glamorgan - 800
- Torfaen - 702
- Wrexham - 1,349
How many crimes have gone unsolved so far?
Out of the tens of thousands of crimes recorded by police in January, nearly 5,000 of those have been logged as 'investigation complete; no suspect identified' - meaning they are currently unsolved.
And what about the rest?
Only 30 recorded crimes resulted in the offender going to prison - 12 were for violence and sexual offences, nine for shoplifting, three for public order, two for criminal damage and two for vehicle crime and one for possession of a weapon and one for possession of drugs.
149 cases resulted in the offender being fined, 137 saw the offender handed a drugs possession warning and 30 resulted in a community sentence.
9,519 crimes are still under investigation and some do not include an outcome.
