THE Devon and Cornwall region has seen an 11.7 per cent rise in crime over the past year and dropped from sixth to ninth in the table of the safest places to live.

Recorded crime from the 12 months to March 2025 rose to 121,028 from 108,351 on the previous year with violence against the person and theft particularly shoplifting accounting for the highest number of offences.

From June 2023 to June 2024 Devon and Cornwall Police was confirmed as having the sixth lowest crime rate out of 42 police forces in England and Wales, according to the latest statistics from the Office for National Statistics (ONS).

During one quarter of 2023, it was number one in the list.

Devon and Cornwall Police and Crime Commissioner Alison Hernandez told a police and crime panel recently that it was now in ninth place.

The crime rate per 1,000 people has increased from 59.6 crimes per 1,000 people to 66.4 crimes per 1,000 people.

The constabulary has the second highest crime rate within its similar forces group (Warwickshire, Norfolk, West Mercia, Suffolk, North Yorkshire, Wiltshire and North Wales), behind that of North Wales.

Violence against the person accounted for 43 per cent (52,383) of recorded crime and theft offences 24 per cent (29,349) over the last year.

Commissioner Hernandez said she was not alarmed by the rise in shoplifting as more offences were being reported.

“The one to be alarmed about, and what we should be doing more about, is the violence in our communities and particularly violence against women and girls as it is the bulk of it,” she said.

“Violence has been increasing for years and we have to do more to tackle it.

“The government has given a serious violence duty to local authorities, to the police and other partners so there is an expectation they will work together to tackle it a lot more.

“I am not involved in that duty but I do have a power of conveying and to hold the police to account for delivering on what they should be doing so I think there is some opportunities in the future about we can be doing together.”

She said that the rise in domestic violence over 30 years could no longer be seen as just a result of people becoming more confident to report.

Ms Hernandez said it was not all men who caused the violence but it was largely all women who had been a victim of it.

She said there were some fantastic men’s groups that had been formed in Devon and Cornwall such as Band of Brothers, Man Down and Man Culture who she wanted to bring together and make them more visible.

Cllr Caroline Leaver (Lib Dem, Barnstaple, Devon County Council and North Devon Council) ) said it was “absolutely horrifying” that the domestic violence crime rate had been rising for 30 years.