Crime and Safety in Bethnal Green, Tower Hamlets
Last updated: 07 Jun 2026
The most common crimes in Bethnal Green are violence and sexual offences, with 816 offences during 2026, giving a crime rate of 38. This is 1.9% higher than 2025's figure of 801 offences and a difference of 0.62 from 2025's crime rate of 37. Bethnal Green's least common crimes are possession of weapons, with 17 offences recorded in 2026, an increase of 21% from 2025's figure of 14 crimes.
Bethnal Green 2026 Crime Scorecard
91% higher, borough crime rate
London
83% higher, national crime rate
England, Wales & NI
Local Crime in Context
As of April 2026, the crime rate in Tower Hamlets is 91% higher than London and 83% higher than the England, Wales & Northern Ireland overall figure.
Tower Hamlets Crime Rate Over Time
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| Tower Hamlets | |
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Bethnal Green Crime Map
Incidents mapped in Bethnal Green represent the time frame between January 2016 and April 2026. Each point on the map represents an area where crimes have been recorded locally.
Use Crime Map
Hover over a point to see a breakdown of crime types recorded at that location. You can also filter by individual crime types, or use a combinations of offences to visualise the data you need.
Introduction to Bethnal Green's crime statistics
This crime profile provides a detailed view of crime and safety around Bethnal Green up to April 2026, the most recent data release available. The crime figures and statistics have been calculated across each of Bethnal Green's 27 postcodes using three area sizes for comparison:
- Within a Five-Minute Walk
- Within a Ten-Minute Walk
- Within a Fifteen-Minute Walk
Individual crime risk scores and index figures are for the 12-month period ending April 2026 unless otherwise stated.
Crime Risk Scores
Bethnal Green • 12 Months Ending April 2026
The typical five-minute walk within Bethnal Green has a crime risk score of 721. This is based on analysis of 27 nearby areas within Bethnal Green, with "most" referring to roughly two thirds of the nearby locations.
Crime risk scores are on a scale of 1 to 1,000 and consider the severity of the crimes involved, as determined by sentencing guidelines. A score of 1 represents the lowest risk, and 1,000 the highest risk. This approach ensures that - unlike overall crime rate figures - bicycle theft is not given the same importance in Bethnal Green's risk scores as, for example, robbery, or violence & sexual offences.
Within a five-minute walk of the typical location in Bethnal Green, crime risk scores are typically around 721, while in Tower Hamlets they are average 651.
Areas within a ten-minute walk typically see crime risk scores of 747 (731 for Tower Hamlets), and scores within a fifteen-minute walk are most often around 772 (Tower Hamlets 783).
Trends in Crime Risk
Bethnal Green
Calculated via Seasonal and Trend decomposition using Loess, the Seasonality Adjusted line represents the original data with seasonality subtracted, and the Trend line has been plotted unadjusted. Overall trend direction has been identified using the Mann-Kendall trend test, and rate calculated from the slope of the best-fit line identified from linear regression.
The 10-year trend indicates a decrease of 28% in Bethnal Green's crime risk score. This is potentially a strong signal of how the crime risk is evolving. Cross-referencing with major cultural events and Covid's impact during this time is advised.
The five-year trend may be static; no significant trend was identified in Bethnal Green's crime risk scores during this timeframe.
Over the last year, Bethnal Green's crime risk score has shown a downward trend of approximately 8%, indicating that the risk profile is going down. This is an extremely short time period for crime trend analysis, and caution should be exercised when interpreting this figure.
Crime Rates and Indexes
Bethnal Green
The CrimeRate Index shows how crime rates compare against the national average.
1.0 equals the average
2.0 is double
3.0 triple
0.5 is half and
0.25 a quarter.
Highest Crime Rates
Bethnal Green • 12 Months Ending April 2026
Excluding other crime and other theft because their geographic location is often not relevant, anti-social behaviour as its definition is too wide, and bicycle theft for its specificity.
Theft From the Person offences have a crime rate of 11 reports per 1,000 people in Bethnal Green, which is 7.26 times the national average. This figure is calculated from 245 crime reports logged by Metropolitan Police during the 12-month period ending April 2026.
For the same period, Metropolitan Police recorded 124 reports of Robbery in Bethnal Green, resulting in a crime rate of 5.70 reports per 1,000, and a CrimeRate Index of 4.83.
The crime rate for Drugs is 2.73 times the national average at 8.45 reports per 1,000. This is from 184 crime reports reported to Metropolitan Police.
Most Significant 3-Year Increases in Crime Types
Bethnal Green
Excluding other crime and other theft, anti-social behaviour, and bicycle theft, and calculated with the same STL method described in Trends in Crime Risk, using CrimeRate Index figures to identify crime types that are trending above or below the national average, and the analysis timeframe limited to the last three years.
Shoplifting offences are trending upwards, and have a CrimeRate Index of 2.56 for the month of April 2026.
Three years ago, the monthly Shoplifting CrimeRate Index was 1.68 times the national average, and the current trend indicates an increase of 52% over this timeframe.
Possession of Weapons offences are trending upwards, and have a CrimeRate Index of 2.57 for the month of April 2026.
Three years ago, the monthly Possession of Weapons CrimeRate Index was 0.71 times the national average, and the current trend indicates an increase of 262% over this timeframe.
Violence and Sexual Offences are trending upwards, and have a CrimeRate Index of 1.33 for the month of April 2026.
Three years ago, the monthly Violence and Sexual Offences CrimeRate Index was 0.92 times the national average, and the current trend indicates an increase of 45% over this timeframe.
Most Significant 3-Year Decreases in Crime Types
Bethnal Green
Calculated with the same methodology as the largest increases section above.
Theft From the Person offences are trending downwards, and have a CrimeRate Index of 4.58 for the month of April 2026.
Three years ago, the monthly Theft From the Person CrimeRate Index was 12 times the national average, and the current trend indicates a decrease of 62% over this timeframe.
Drugs offences are trending downwards, and have a CrimeRate Index of 2.00 for the month of April 2026.
Three years ago, the monthly Drugs CrimeRate Index was 3.81 times the national average, and the current trend indicates a decrease of 48% over this timeframe.
Robbery offences are trending downwards, and have a CrimeRate Index of 4.10 for the month of April 2026.
Three years ago, the monthly Robbery CrimeRate Index was 8.33 times the national average, and the current trend indicates a decrease of 51% over this timeframe.
Crime Type Breakdown & Heat Map
Bethnal Green • 12 Months Ending April 2026
Size and colour reflect the CrimeRate Index figures for each type of crime.
Bethnal Green | Tower Hamlets | London | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Crime Type | Count | Rate | Index | Count | Rate | Index | Count | Rate | Index |
| Anti-Social Behaviour | 1,033 | 47.48 | 3.36 | 11,045 | 20.37 | 1.44 | 235,985 | 21.68 | 1.53 |
| Bicycle Theft | 126 | 5.79 | 7.93 | 998 | 1.83 | 2.51 | 13,695 | 1.26 | 1.73 |
| Burglary | 185 | 8.50 | 2.72 | 2,348 | 4.32 | 1.38 | 47,359 | 4.34 | 1.39 |
| Criminal Damage and Arson | 160 | 7.35 | 1.17 | 2,038 | 3.75 | 0.60 | 54,098 | 4.99 | 0.79 |
| Drugs | 184 | 8.45 | 2.73 | 2,887 | 5.33 | 1.72 | 53,167 | 4.87 | 1.58 |
| Other Crime | 30 | 1.40 | 0.83 | 487 | 0.88 | 0.48 | 13,008 | 1.19 | 0.64 |
| Other Theft | 286 | 13.14 | 2.31 | 3,938 | 7.25 | 1.27 | 97,452 | 8.97 | 1.58 |
| Possession of Weapons | 17 | 0.80 | 1.14 | 276 | 0.50 | 0.59 | 6,443 | 0.60 | 0.71 |
| Public Order | 204 | 9.38 | 1.62 | 2,774 | 5.10 | 0.88 | 60,049 | 5.52 | 0.95 |
| Robbery | 124 | 5.70 | 4.83 | 1,254 | 2.30 | 1.95 | 30,804 | 2.83 | 2.40 |
| Shoplifting | 386 | 17.74 | 2.49 | 3,417 | 6.30 | 0.88 | 87,976 | 8.09 | 1.13 |
| Theft From the Person | 245 | 11.26 | 7.26 | 2,766 | 5.10 | 3.29 | 77,160 | 7.11 | 4.59 |
| Vehicle Crime | 109 | 5.02 | 1.17 | 2,596 | 4.78 | 1.11 | 81,755 | 7.50 | 1.74 |
| Violence and Sexual Offences | 816 | 37.51 | 1.23 | 11,709 | 21.59 | 0.71 | 273,434 | 25.12 | 0.83 |
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Total Crime by Year
Bethnal Green | Tower Hamlets | London | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Year | Count | Rate | Index | Count | Rate | Index | Count | Rate | Index |
| 2026 | 2,872 | 132.04 | 1.84 | 37,488 | 69.03 | 0.96 | 896,400 | 82.39 | 1.14 |
| 2025 | 3,019 | 139.56 | 1.90 | 35,452 | 65.28 | 0.88 | 896,961 | 83.23 | 1.12 |
| 2024 | 3,342 | 156.17 | 2.08 | 35,635 | 66.28 | 0.88 | 900,986 | 84.38 | 1.12 |
| 2023 | 3,381 | 158.17 | 2.01 | 32,620 | 60.85 | 0.77 | 835,471 | 78.98 | 1.00 |
| 2022 | 3,174 | 149.33 | 1.95 | 32,196 | 60.98 | 0.79 | 795,646 | 75.77 | 0.99 |
| 2021 | 2,518 | 118.59 | 1.73 | 30,170 | 57.64 | 0.84 | 727,983 | 69.09 | 1.01 |
| 2020 | 3,168 | 148.18 | 2.01 | 31,037 | 59.21 | 0.80 | 819,467 | 77.66 | 1.05 |
| 2019 | 3,838 | 179.86 | 2.37 | 33,866 | 64.76 | 0.85 | 849,310 | 80.70 | 1.06 |
| 2018 | 3,599 | 170.86 | 2.41 | 31,349 | 60.39 | 0.85 | 810,063 | 77.08 | 1.08 |
| 2017 | 3,373 | 161.07 | 2.52 | 30,223 | 59.43 | 0.93 | 758,160 | 72.41 | 1.13 |
| 2016 | 1,073 | 51.26 | 2.71 | 8,887 | 17.61 | 0.92 | 234,565 | 22.42 | 1.18 |
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Bethnal Green Compared to Other Tower Hamlets Neighbourhoods
12 Months Ending Apr 2026
| Neighbourhood | Total Crimes | Crime Rate | Rate Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Spitalfields | 1,956 | 58.96 | 55% safer |
| Whitechapel | 5,811 | 92.73 | 30% safer |
| Cambridge Heath | 1,070 | 96.55 | 27% safer |
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Frequently Asked Questions
Crime in Tower Hamlets