These are chilling numbers. The radio RTL published on Sunday September 24, 2023 poignant figures on incest, this scourge which affects 1 in 10 children in France and which will be the subject of a report broadcast on M6 and which notably traces the confessions of Emmanuelle Béart. The actress, now aged 60, spoke on the occasion of the release of this documentary, called A silence so noisy, which she co-directed. She had admitted to having been the victim of incestuous acts between the ages of 10 and 14 by a member of her family. “If my grandmother had not intervened, and if I had not been put on that train at the age of 15 to join my father, I am not sure that I would have managed to live, it “is as violent as that, it’s as real as that”, declared the actress. Serious facts including 4,218 were accused in 2022 in France. More than a third of offenses were closed without further action (37%) by French justice. The reasons given include: limitation period of the facts or insufficient characterization.
Justice takes up incest
It is a silent scourge that consumes the victims. According to the Ciivise (Independent Commission on Incest and Sexual Violence Against Children) 5.5 million adults were victims of incest as children, most often within their family. Figures that are difficult to know as the victims remain silent. According to the Face à l’inceste association, 6.7 million people have been victims of incest in their lives, or 10% of the French population. A worrying figure that justice is trying to deal with as best it can. In 2022, of the 4,218 people accused, 2,532 people were prosecuted and an investigation by an investigating judge was carried out. 209 were even presented before a juvenile court. A criminal response that has improved since 2017. At the time, there were an estimated 972 convictions against 1,814 in 2021 (including 471 for rape and 1,343 for sexual assault or abuse). But despite progress on the subject, children remain the first victims. According to Ciivise, 160,000 children are victims of incestuous acts each year. A description period of ten years is set from the facts for a sexual offense against a child under 16 years old.. Faced with the urgency of freeing speech, the government announced at the beginning of June a plan against violence against children.