Reports of sexual violence recorded by the police and gendarmerie increased by 33% in 2021, according to the provisional assessment of delinquency carried out by the statistical service of the Ministry of the Interior.
In addition, the Ministry of the Interior reports a 14% increase in reports for domestic violence and 9% for other intentional assaults.
However, this increase should not be confused with an increase in assaults in 2021. Many reports relate to older facts. “These trends are part of the context of freedom of speech and better consideration of this subject by the police, a priority of the government since the start of the five-year term”, affirmed the Minister of the Interior, Gérald Darmanin, in a press release. Since the start of the five-year term, the number of reports for domestic violence has increased by 57% and that for sexual violence by 82%, continues the Minister of the Interior.
Complaints still rare
The filing of a complaint remains very much in the minority in these types of facts, where the aggressor is often an acquaintance of the victim (in 91% of cases, according to a report by the National Assembly), or even his or her spouse or ex-spouse ( in 45% of cases).
According to the living environment and safety victimization survey, carried out by Insee, the National Institute of Statistics and Economic Studies, to supplement the raw data of registered complaints, approximately 295,000 people, including 213,000 women, said they had been victims of physical or sexual violence by their spouse or former spouse between 2011 and 2018. Only 27% of victims went to the police station or the gendarmerie, 18% filed a complaint and 7% a handrail or a lawsuit -verbal of judicial information.