Crime-fighting strategies in Hastings have been ranked the second least effective in England and Wales.
The Crime List, billed as the first league table of police performance, has been compiled by academics at Leeds University who examined 375 local authority areas.
Researchers analysed Home Office figures but took factors including economic deprivation and unemployment into account.
They ranked 375 Crime and Disorder Reduction Partnerships using the most recent statistics from the Home Office published every six months.
These partnerships were set up by the 1998 Crime and Disorder Act. Councils, the police, health authorities and the probation service must work together to cut crime.
The Crime List says partnerships in Hastings came next to bottom of the league with the second-worst track record for reducing crime.
The metropolitan borough of Knowsley in Merseyside, one of Britain's most deprived areas, came out on top.
South Buckinghamshire, which boasts communities with the highest proportion of millionaires in the country, was revealed as the worst.
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