Do you live in Exeter’s crime ghetto or safe haven?

If you’re worried about your kit getting nicked, you can find out if you live in a crime hotspot in Exeter through a handy website.

| UPDATED crime Exeter Jessica Newton the tab exeter University of Exeter

If you’re worried about your brand new iphone, xbox or laptop that mummy and daddy bought you getting nicked, you can find out if you live in a crime hotspot in Exeter through a handy website.

Crime mapping website www.police.uk allows anxious students to compare crime levels between areas and see how recorded crime rates have altered over the past three years.

You can track robberies, burglaries, violent crime and anti-social behaviour.

The data given is the total number of crimes over a twelve month period per thousand residents, based on the crime type selected.

Users can check crime levels on a street by street basis or can look up figures by borough, district or city (I hear a new drinking game?).

By March 2012, for example, the site shows the crime rate in Exeter to be lower than the average across similar areas. Exeter scores 77.96 crimes per 1000 residents, whereas Plymouth and Cambridge tally at 81.66 and 91.91 respectively.

But Exeter ranks way higher than the average for Devon and Cornwall; North Devon stands at just 47.29. Also, crime rates were shown to have risen in Exeter compared to the corresponding quarter (January-March) in 2011.

The tool can also be used to view the outcomes of crimes in certain areas. For example, of the 501 crimes reported within a mile of student-area Union Road in September 2012, only 84 have been charged and only two of these saw the offender sent to prison.

Are we living in a gangsta’s paradise?

Of these 501 reported crimes, 142 were related to Anti-Social Behaviour. Unsurprisingly, the map shows the ASB crimes to be prominent in areas with student housing, tsk tsk.

ASBO City?

By switching to a bar graph the disgustingly high rates of sexual offences for our area becomes clear. With Devon and Cornwall standing as the third worst in the country, the threat to our streetlights becomes even more terrifying.

Third worst for Sexual Assault

The uncovering of the new mapping website has nearly coincided with the upcoming Police and Crime Commissioner elections on 15 November. The PCCs will aim to cut crime and increase the efficiency of the Police force. Keep checking The Tab for your guide on how and who to vote for.

Your iphone, xbox and drunken house mate wandering back in the dark are relying on you.