France records sharp rise in domestic violence

1 year ago 36

French police recorded an average year-on-year increase of 15% in domestic violence incidents between 2019 and 2022, with numbers doubling between 2022 and 2016, according to figures published in a press release on Thursday by the statistical unit of the Ministry of the Interior.

The 15% year-on-year increase is not new, with it being “close to the average annual rate of change observed since 2019”, the press release reads.

“Against a backdrop of freedom of speech and improved conditions for receiving victims by the police and gendarmerie, the number of victims recorded has doubled since 2016”, the statistical office added.

For 2022, of the 244,000 victims of domestic violence recorded, 86% of victims are women, and 87% of accused are men, while three out of four victims are aged 20-45, with the most affected age group being 30-34 and accounting for 17% of victims, they added.

Most cases were filed as a result of physical violence (34%), followed by psychological harassment (26%), while cases of sexual violence (10%) were less.

But figures could be higher due to issues of underreporting.

Only one in four victims files a complaint, according to the ministry’s statistical body, which noted that some incidents are “never reported” or are reported “later”.

According to the Home Office, these figures ‘do not directly reflect changes in crime’.

The propensity to report “depends on the nature of the crime, the context in which it was committed” and “changes in social behaviour”, the ministry said.

“Giving resources to victim support associations is essential: the multiplication of difficulties, both material and psychological, leads women who are victims of violence to return to their partner’s home, because all too often this means leaving their life behind”, Anne-Cécile Mailfert, president of the Women’s Foundation, said on X.

(Clara Bauer-Babef | Euractiv.fr)