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Lewisham is the least peaceful place in the whole of UK

LEWISHAM has been judged the least peaceful local authority area in the whole of the UK, a new study has revealed.

Rates of murder and violent crime have fallen in the UK over the past decade, according to UK Peace Index.

Yet Lewisham is ranked as the least peaceful area with a homicide rate - including murder, manslaughter and infanticide - of more than twice the national average at 2.5 in 2012.

The study looks at the levels of peace – defined as the absence of violence and the fear of violence – within the UK from 2003 to 2012.

The five indicators for how peaceful an area is are the number of homicides, the number of violence crimes, weapons crime, public disorder offences, and the number of police officers per 100,000 people.

Knife crime, social deprivation, and a high number of teenage pregnancies were all deemed major problems in Lewisham with Lewisham Central ward seeing the bulk of the borough’s crime.

The study closely links deprivation with a lack of peace and more than 60 per cent of Lewisham households were shown as being deprived in housing, education, health and employment.

In recent years, knife crime between young people aged 13 and 24 are listed as a concern with the conception rate for under 18 year olds standing at 1.8 times the national average.

2011 was the worst year for homicides in Lewisham with 11 recorded and its average of seven per year compares unfavourably against a national decline in the number and rate of homicides.

Despite decreases in weapons crime and violent crime in recent years, the number of incidents remains well above national trends, the report concluded.

UKPI was drawn up by the Institute for Economics and Peace and compares 343 local authorities where 278 are deemed more peaceful now than in 2003.

South East England is judged as the most peaceful region in the UK with Broadland, Three Rivers and South Cambridgeshire as the top local authority areas.

Whereas the five least peaceful are all London boroughs with Lewisham topping the charts, followed by Lambeth, Hackney, Newham and Tower Hamlets.

Lewisham's top cop stresses that crime has fallen overall in the past year but the force are not complacent and there is much work to do with knife crime remaining a priority.

Lewisham Borough Commander Supt Russell Nyman said: "The peace index shows that the UK has become a more peaceful place and the end of financial year crime figures covering 2012/13 for London which were released yesterday shows that there were over 45,000 fewer crimes recorded compared to last year.

"Overall crime in Lewisham has fallen by 9.3 per cent over the last year - that's 2,537 fewer crimes in the borough and we have seen decreases in offences in some key areas such as knife crime, robbery and violence against person compared to last year.

"Knife enabled crime has fallen by 27.9 per cent, robbery has fallen by 13.9 per cent and violent crime has fallen by 8 per cent in the last 12 months

"Whilst we have seen crime fall in these key areas we are not complacent. We acknowledge that there is still a lot of work to do, especially knife crime and violence, which remains a priority for us over the forthcoming year.

"Serious youth violence and supporting the younger generation who may be, or are affiliated to a ‘gang culture’ way of life will wherever possible be supported through Trilogy Plus, a joint enterprise between Lewisham Police and the Lewisham Council."

He added: "As we go forward in this new financial year substantial organisational changes will be taking place but it is through working together as a team, working with our partners and continuing to deliver the very best services to the people of Lewisham that we will be able to continue to drive down crime. Our priorities for the new financial year are to reduce crime, detect crime and to provide a first class service to the public."

Do these results surprise you? Is Lewisham the least peaceful place in the world?
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Comments

  • edited April 2013
    Lewisham is the local authority Deptford and New Cross come into that area.

    So Lewisham, as in what you or I as local lads regard Lewisham, is not necessarily what they mean in this study.
  • Massive surprise there.
  • I have lived in this Borough for over thirty years, and I have only been murdered twice, that's well below the national average seems to me
  • Least peaceful sounds nicer than most violent. :-)
  • Is Lewisham the least peaceful place in the world?

    Nah. Bermondsey.

  • Surprised the media didn't blame the local football team as they all hate Millwall and make up lies about them whenever they can.
  • 2003-2012? So it includes the period of the riots which will skew the violent crime data horribly. Plus having a massive police station in Lewisham high street will vastly increase the "number of police officers per 100,000 people" metric. Not buying it I'm afraid.
  • The average person likes to wake up in the morning to the sound of birds singing the dawn chorus, milk bottles clinking together as the milk man puts them on your door step etc. In Lewisham, the "average" person is shocked if they are not woken up but Police car sirens, the Police carrying out dawn raids and the sounds of bottles being broken over peoples heads or thrown at the Police doing the dawn raids. Oh yes and dont forget the lovely sounds of the pit bulls barking too!
  • LenGlover said:

    Lewisham is the local authority Deptford and New Cross come into that area.

    So Lewisham, as in what you or I as local lads regard Lewisham, is not necessarily what they mean in this study.

    But the article specifically refers to the bulk of the problems being in Lewisham Central.
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  • It only says top 5 in the article but its actually the top 10 worst that are all London boroughs.
  • That's what they do.
  • i
    aliwibble said:

    2003-2012? So it includes the period of the riots which will skew the violent crime data horribly. Plus having a massive police station in Lewisham high street will vastly increase the "number of police officers per 100,000 people" metric. Not buying it I'm afraid.

    agree ..i wouldnt distinguish lewishams" issues" than being different than any other "inner city" borough ..another example of being damned lies and statistics
  • Lewisham/Blackheath is my home town. On the rare occasions I go back to Lewisham I always find an air of unease about the place and it is unrecognizable from the place where I grew up. Having said that, the same air of unease could probably be found in parts of most cities and large towns
  • edited April 2013

    LenGlover said:

    Lewisham is the local authority Deptford and New Cross come into that area.

    So Lewisham, as in what you or I as local lads regard Lewisham, is not necessarily what they mean in this study.

    But the article specifically refers to the bulk of the problems being in Lewisham Central.
    Good spot!

    I only skim read briefly the first time missed that bit and made an assumption.

    I have to say I find it surprising but it's over 30 years since I lived there and areas change.
  • aliwibble said:

    2003-2012? So it includes the period of the riots which will skew the violent crime data horribly. Plus having a massive police station in Lewisham high street will vastly increase the "number of police officers per 100,000 people" metric. Not buying it I'm afraid.

    Excatly. The more police presence you have in an area, skews it more, as more crime is reported with more resource to follow up which means more recorded results. The more police you have doesn't mean less crime. Crime figures would defo go up in any area if this was the case elsewhere.
  • Lewisham, the city that never sleeps...
  • edited April 2013
    cafckev said:

    The average person likes to wake up in the morning to the sound of birds singing the dawn chorus, milk bottles clinking together as the milk man puts them on your door step etc. In Lewisham, the "average" person is shocked if they are not woken up but Police car sirens, the Police carrying out dawn raids and the sounds of bottles being broken over peoples heads or thrown at the Police doing the dawn raids. Oh yes and dont forget the lovely sounds of the pit bulls barking too!

    Haha , neighbourhood watch? Pah more like watch your neighbour.

    I wonder how much more crime happens , but never ends up in these sort of figures because people don't want the hassle, or think the police will do bugger all?

  • LenGlover said:

    LenGlover said:

    Lewisham is the local authority Deptford and New Cross come into that area.

    So Lewisham, as in what you or I as local lads regard Lewisham, is not necessarily what they mean in this study.

    But the article specifically refers to the bulk of the problems being in Lewisham Central.
    Good spot!

    I only skim read briefly the first time missed that bit and made an assumption.

    I have to say I find it surprising but it's over 30 years since I lived there and areas change.
    Think I would have made the same assumption about Deptford and New Cross. The area north of New Cross Road is pretty heavily dominated by massive estates. I lived in Lewisham for a while quite recently and whilst its hardly Primrose Hill, I think there's much worse parts of town.
  • cafckev said:

    The average person likes to wake up in the morning to the sound of birds singing the dawn chorus, milk bottles clinking together as the milk man puts them on your door step etc. In Lewisham, the "average" person is shocked if they are not woken up but Police car sirens, the Police carrying out dawn raids and the sounds of bottles being broken over peoples heads or thrown at the Police doing the dawn raids. Oh yes and dont forget the lovely sounds of the pit bulls barking too!

    Well, as an 'average' person living in Lewisham I can't specifically recall being woken by any of the noises you mention. It was the binmen today, the squeals of foxes mating the other day...

    So I live on the least peaceful neighbourhood of Lewisham and work in the second least peaceful neighbourhood; Lambeth. Should I be worried...or sectioned?
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  • Downham estate is not what it was gentlemen criminals who nicked some bullion etc replaced by muggers and heroin users
  • LenGlover said:

    Lewisham is the local authority Deptford and New Cross come into that area.

    So Lewisham, as in what you or I as local lads regard Lewisham, is not necessarily what they mean in this study.

    What are you trying to say?
  • Just the right time to be down grading Lewisham A&E really
  • edited April 2013
    nolly said:

    Downham estate is not what it was gentlemen criminals who nicked some bullion etc replaced by muggers and heroin users

    The whole notion of gentlemen criminals is preposterous. Heroin has been used in London for over 100 years, Opium even longer.
  • bite
  • Heroin may have been around for 100 years but large scale drug importation and use only really took off in the mid to late 80s when armed robberies became harder to carry out.
  • exactly
  • thats ok then FOD, not worth worrying about at all.
  • Heroin may have been around for 100 years but large scale drug importation and use only really took off in the mid to late 80s when armed robberies became harder to carry out.

    Nice try, but I'm not biting again.

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