Violence in Cleveland

CURV commissioned a Strategic Needs Assessment to understand the scale, nature and drivers of violent crime in Cleveland. It examined violent crime in Cleveland between 2017 and 2022 – looking at key factors such as:

• Where violent crime takes place
• Who is committing violent crime – age, gender and other specific features
• What are the key drivers of violent crime in Cleveland.

CURV Strategic Needs Assessment (application, 7MB)

This document would inform how to best tackle the issue and to identify ways to secure long-term sustainable change.

Serious and Violent Crime in Cleveland 

CURV found that:

• Cleveland has the seventh highest rate nationally (11.4 per 100,000 population) for hospital admissions as a result of assault with a sharp object. Middlesbrough’s rate is higher rate than Merseyside, which has the highest rate nationally.*
• Cleveland has the second highest rate of knife crime per head of population nationally (154 per 100,000.)
• One in 20 crimes in Cleveland is categorised as a serious violence offence.
• Offences are most commonly linked to domestic abuse, drugs or alcohol and weapons. 24 per cent of serious violence offences were related to domestic abuse.
• Most violence is committed by a small number of suspects. 25 per cent of offenders committed half of Cleveland’s serious violence offences

Hotspots 

However, the spread of serious and violent crime is uneven across Cleveland.

Serious violence takes place in concentrated hotspots.

Table showing the highest counts of violence with injury offences in Cleveland, October 2017 – October 2022

• 16% of violence takes place in just two wards in Middlesbrough
• More than one in ten violence with injury offences take place in the Central ward of Middlesbrough
• 47% of all violence with injury offences take place in just 10 of Cleveland’s wards

Factors linked to crime 

Deprivation, experience of services, exclusion from school, experience of domestic abuse and prior exposure to the criminal justice system are all identified as strongly linked with serious violence offending. 

• Cleveland has high levels of deprivation. Middlesbrough is the local authority with the highest levels of income deprivation.
• There are high levels of domestic abuse in Cleveland. 39% of young people known to youth offending services had experiences of domestic abuse.

Drug use and supply, organised crime group activity, domestic abuse, antisocial behaviour and fire-setting are either seen as “gateway” offences leading to more serious crime – or they are fundamentally linked to serious violence. 

*Based on data to June 2022