Why things are not always as they seem

However, closer examination reveals another picture

Listed purely on an area to area basis the figures fail to take into account the difference in population size.

When factored in, the picture changes.

With a population of 16.618 Parson Cross greatly outnumbers many areas around Sheffield and with 4,069 crimes the percentage of crime is approximately 24.5 per cent.

Southey Green with a population of 4,682 and 1571 crimes = 33.6 per cent

Longley with 6,611 residents and 1882 crimes = 28.5 per cent.

Shirecliffe, 2,770 residents 911 crimes = 32.9 per cent

Gleadless Valley 6,247 residents 2128 crimes = 34.1 per cent

This is just a small sample calculation of crime rates drawn from across the city, revealing the fact that Parson Cross is at least four more places further down the list!

Who knows, with further investigation into the remaining areas, it could be more and may very well not warrant inclusion in the top 10.

Add to that the fact that some of the crimes were said to have taken place ‘around a supermarket’ and ‘near a garage’, both places to which people travel from outside.

Also a large number were listed as ‘anti-social behaviour’ and many of the cases were dropped and it’s clear things are not quite as black as they were initially painted.

Views of an area and its people are often formed from newspaper articles or radio/television reports but on many occasions, crimes have wrongly been attributed to Parson Cross out of confusion over its boundaries.

Most notably three murders which were, in fact, committed on Shirecliffe, Longley and Scraithwood.

Recently, it was reported that there was a drug den on Parson Cross run by a family from the same estate.

In fact, the den was run from Southey Green with six of those involved coming from Southey Green, two from Shirecliffe and sadly, two from Parson Cross.

In short, things are not always as they seem.

Mary Steele

Deerlands Ave, Parson Cross, Sheffield 5