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Desborough Baptist ChurchPhoto: Mike Faherty · CC BY-SA 2.0
C+Safety Grade
Safety in Desborough · police.uk, 2023–2026

Per resident, Desborough sees less crime than seven in ten UK towns of 10,000 to 50,000 people

Recorded violence fell 6% in a year. Police recorded 282 cases of anti-social behaviour in Desborough in the 12 months to August 2026, a rate of 23.7 per 1,000 against a typical 12.4. Taking everything together, Desborough scores C+ (#16 of 31 in Northamptonshire): close to the middle of UK towns, measured on crimes police recorded inside its built-up area between September 2023 and August 2026. Each year brought 25.6 violent and sexual offences and 11.0 incidents of burglary, vehicle crime and damage for every 1,000 residents.

Violent crime
25.6
per 1,000 residents a year · graded
Homes & vehicles
11
burglary, vehicle crime, damage · graded
Shoplifting & theft
8
per 1,000 a year · not graded
Anti-social behaviour
15.7
reports per 1,000 a year · not graded

Crimes and reports per 1,000 residents (Census 2021) a year, September 2023 to August 2026.

What stands out · In brief

What stands out about safety in Desborough

Violent crime fell over the year

In the 12 months to August 2026 police recorded 6% less violent crime per resident in Desborough than in the year before; across UK towns of 10,000 to 50,000 people violent crime held steady. Burglary, vehicle crime and criminal damage rose 34% (towns its size: held steady). Trend ↓

Less crime than many places its size

Of 428 UK towns of 8,000 to 16,000 people, Desborough has the 164th lowest rate of graded crime: lower than Shifnal, Otley and Pencoed, higher than Higham Ferrers, Blaby and Whetstone and Buckingham. Towns its size ↓

Many neighbourhoods rank low for crime nationally

The government’s Indices of Deprivation 2025 rank every neighbourhood in England on recorded crime. 11% of Desborough’s residents live in one of the lowest-crime 10%, and 0% in one of the highest-crime 20%. Neighbourhood ranks ↓

Written from the police.uk and government data on this page. Figures are crimes police recorded, not convictions.

Safety Grade

Inside Desborough’s C+ for safety

Compared with UK towns its sizeLess crime per resident than 70% of the 645 UK towns of 10,000 to 50,000 people: less crime than most for its size. Context only, not part of the grade.
Violent and sexual offences (25.6 per 1,000 a year, 3-year average)Less crime than 42% of UK towns
Homes and vehicles (11 per 1,000 a year, 3-year average)Less crime than 39% of UK towns
C+B−

A fairly firm grade. Built on 1,306 graded crimes over three years. The grade adds violent and sexual offences and crimes against homes and vehicles per resident and ranks Desborough against every UK town of 1,000 or more.

Per resident, against all UK towns; beside it, how it compares with towns its size.

By type

What police recorded in the last 12 months

Violence & sexual offences24.7
Anti-social behaviour23.7
Criminal damage & arson6.3
Shoplifting4.5
Vehicle crime4.2
Other theft3.7
Burglary3
Public order2.1
Other crime2
Drugs0.7
Possession of weapons0.4
Robbery0.4
Bicycle theft0.3
Theft from the person0
Violent (graded)Homes & vehicles (graded)Not gradedTypical town its size

Against the typical town its size, Desborough runs highest on anti-social behaviour (23.7 per 1,000 against 12.4), vehicle crime (4.2 per 1,000 against 2.8) and burglary (3 per 1,000 against 2.4). Shoplifting and public order sit below it.

Show as a table
CategoryIn the gradeReportsPer 1,000Typical
Violence & sexual offencesViolent29424.730.4
Anti-social behaviournot graded28223.712.4
Criminal damage & arsonHome & vehicle756.36.2
Shopliftingnot graded534.56.1
Vehicle crimeHome & vehicle504.22.8
Other theftnot graded443.74.4
BurglaryHome & vehicle3632.4
Public ordernot graded252.15.4
Other crimenot graded2421.8
Drugsnot graded80.71.9
Possession of weaponsViolent50.40.7
RobberyViolent50.40.5
Bicycle theftnot graded30.30.3
Theft from the personnot graded000.3

“Violent” is police.uk’s violence and sexual offences (which includes harassment, stalking and assault without injury), robbery and possession of weapons. Anti-social behaviour isn’t a crime category; shoplifting and other theft happen mostly in shops and town centres rather than to residents, so neither counts in the grade.

September 2025 to August 2026, per 1,000 residents. The tick on each bar is the typical (median) town among UK towns of 10,000 to 50,000 people.

Neighbourhoods · England-wide rank

1 in 9 Desborough residents lives in one of England’s lowest-crime neighbourhoods

0%1
0%2
0%3
23%4
0%5
31%6
21%7
13%8
0%9
11%10
Higher crimeLower crime

24% of residents live in the lowest-crime 30% of England’s neighbourhoods, and 0% in the highest-crime 20%. The crime domain scores the risk of violence, burglary, theft and criminal damage where people live, so it can read differently from the town-wide rate, which counts crimes where they happened.

Desborough’s residents by the crime decile of their neighbourhood (LSOA, about 1,500 people) in the English Indices of Deprivation 2025 (crime domain), where 1 is the highest-crime 10% of England’s neighbourhoods and 10 the lowest.

Trend · monthly

How crime in Desborough has moved

“Towns its size” pools all UK towns of 10,000 to 50,000 people that police.uk covers each month (Greater Manchester has no data).

Rolling six-month rate, per 1,000 residents a year (longer windows for smaller places, where a few crimes swing a month). In the 12 months to August 2026 against the 12 before: violent -6% (towns its size +1%), homes and vehicles +34% (towns its size -2%), shoplifting and theft -3% (towns its size +1%), anti-social behaviour +68% (towns its size -4%).

Towns its size

Desborough is 164th of 428 UK towns of 8,000 to 16,000

#TownPeopleViolentHomes & vehiclesShops & theftSafety
1Greasby Merseyside9,17511.33.72.5A
…
97Towcester Northamptonshire11,33322.39.27.3B−
…
105Burton Latimer Northamptonshire10,440256.93.3B−
…
161Higham Ferrers Northamptonshire8,82525.710.820.7C+
162Blaby and Whetstone Leicestershire14,07224.711.88.3C+
163Buckingham Buckinghamshire14,29627.49.211.5C+
164Desborough Northamptonshire11,89925.6118C+
165Shaftesbury Dorset9,16322.314.410.1C+
166Shelf and Northowram West Yorkshire9,19121.415.37.5C+
167Humberston and New Waltham Lincolnshire14,86125.9116.4C+
…
200Raunds Northamptonshire10,23128.910.66.3C+
…
205Irthlingborough Northamptonshire9,30829.310.85.6C+
…
428Haverfordwest Dyfed12,08891.428.632.3D−

Safety letters rank against every UK town of 1,000 or more; the order here is context only.

Graded crime per 1,000 residents a year, September 2023 to August 2026, counting from the least: towns ranked near Desborough, and others in Northamptonshire.

What happened next

Police name a suspect about as often as across UK towns

Violent crime
Desborough
All UK towns
Homes & vehicles
Desborough
All UK towns
Went to courtSuspect identified, unable to prosecuteNo suspect identifiedCaution, local resolution, otherStill open

No suspect was identified for 73% of Desborough’s burglaries, vehicle crimes and criminal damage, against 69% across UK towns, and for 10% of violent and sexual offences against 19%. Most violent cases close as “unable to prosecute” (70% here), usually because the victim doesn’t support a prosecution. About 7% of violent and 4% of household crimes reached court.

The latest outcome police.uk shows for each crime recorded in the first of the three years (September 2023 to August 2024), so most cases have closed. 397 crimes.

1,000 residents · one year

Crime in Desborough per 1,000 residents

Violent (graded)Homes & vehicles (graded)Shoplifting & theft (not graded)
304
violent and sexual offences, 12 months to August 2026
161
homes & vehicles
100
shoplifting & theft
48
of the three, per 1,000

A crime isn’t a victim: one person can report several, and crimes in a town centre often involve visitors rather than residents.

And about 14 burglaries, vehicle crimes or acts of criminal damage, plus 8 shoplifting and theft reports, in the 12 months to August 2026. Each dot is one resident; each coloured dot is one recorded crime.

On the roads

No one died in a collision on Desborough’s roads in 2021–2025

Police recorded 20 collisions with injuries inside Desborough in five years. 4 people were killed or seriously injured: 1 on foot and 0 on a bicycle.

That is about what is typical for UK towns of 10,000 to 50,000 people: at their median rate (0.9 deaths per 100,000 residents a year), a town of Desborough’s size would see about 1 in five years. With numbers this small, a death or two either way changes the picture, so Desborough’s own rate (0.0) is context, not a ranking.

Counting serious injuries too, a town of Desborough’s size at the median for UK towns of 10,000 to 50,000 people would see about 14 people killed or seriously injured in five years; Desborough had 4.

0
people killed, 2021–2025
4
killed or seriously injured
1
of them on foot
0
of them on a bicycle

Casualties are counted where the collision happened, not where people lived: a main road through town adds through-traffic, and residents’ own risk on roads elsewhere isn’t here. Seriously injured uses the Department for Transport’s adjusted figures, which even out the police forces’ different ways of recording injuries. There’s no national rate here: more than half of road deaths in England and Wales (58%) happen outside every town’s built-up area. Source: DfT road casualty statistics (STATS19), 2021–2025.

Collisions police recorded inside Desborough’s built-up area, 2021–2025. Described here; not part of the Safety Grade.

Neighbours

Crime in the places around Desborough

ABCD
TownPeopleViolentHomes & vehiclesSafety
Desborough11,89925.611C+
Rothwell8,6233712.4C−
Mawsley Village2,48715.72.6A
Market Harborough24,16225.112.2C+
Cottingham and Middleton1,36516.66.1A−
Great Bowden1,51013.99.5B+
Broughton1,98222.98.6B−
Kettering63,14949.614.2D

Desborough records more graded crime per resident than 4 of its 7 neighbours. Mawsley Village, 4.7 miles away, records 15.7 violent and sexual offences per 1,000 residents a year (3-year average), against Desborough’s 25.6.

Per 1,000 residents a year, the same three years. Tap a town for its safety page.

How to read these numbers

What this data can and can’t tell you

  • Where crimes happen, not where victims live. police.uk places each crime at a point near where it happened. Town centres with shops, stations, a hospital and nightlife record more crime per resident, and residents of nearby villages who come in to shop or go out are part of that count.
  • Bigger towns record more per resident. Across UK towns, recorded crime per resident rises steeply with size, more than in the U.S., so a city’s grade sits low against the whole UK. The “towns its size” figures show where Desborough sits among towns like it; they are context and don’t change the grade.
  • Points are approximate. police.uk moves each point to the nearest of a set of anonymous map points, so crimes near the edge of the built-up area can fall either side of it.

Questions about safety in Desborough

Is Desborough safe?

Police recorded 25.6 violent and sexual offences and 11 burglaries, vehicle crimes and acts of criminal damage per 1,000 residents a year over the three years to August 2026 (police.uk, inside Desborough’s built-up area). That earns a C+ for safety: less crime per resident than 42% of UK towns. Among 428 UK towns of 8,000 to 16,000 people, Desborough is 164th from the least crime. 11% of residents live in neighbourhoods in England’s lowest-crime 10%.

Is crime going up in Desborough?

In the 12 months to August 2026, against the 12 months before, violent crime fell 6%, burglary, vehicle crime and damage rose 34%, shoplifting and theft held steady and anti-social behaviour rose 68%. Across UK towns of 10,000 to 50,000 people, violent crime held steady.

What is the most common crime in Desborough?

Violence & sexual offences: 294 in the 12 months to August 2026, which in police.uk includes harassment, stalking and assault without injury. Next came criminal damage & arson (75) and shoplifting (53), with 282 reports of anti-social behaviour.

How does Desborough compare with Corby?

Corby records 41.1 violent and sexual offences and 13.2 crimes against homes and vehicles per 1,000 residents a year, against Desborough’s 25.6 and 11, over the same three years.

Sources: data.police.uk street-level crime, 36 months to August 2026, points inside the built-up-area boundary · ONS Census 2021, output areas summed to the ONS 2022 built-up area · MHCLG English Indices of Deprivation 2025, crime domain by LSOA (residents from ONS Census 2021) · Department for Transport road casualty statistics (STATS19), collisions 2021–2025, points inside the built-up-area boundary · TownRatings grades: our own summary of the data, ranked against UK towns only. All under the Open Government Licence v3.0.

Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Contains HM Land Registry data © Crown copyright and database right 2026. Contains OS data © Crown copyright and database right 2026 (ONS boundaries). Northern Ireland: Source: NISRA; contains Land & Property Services data and Ordnance Survey of Northern Ireland information, © Crown copyright, licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Scotland: contains National Records of Scotland data, Registers of Scotland data and SEPA data, © Crown copyright / © SEPA 2025, licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.