Complaints of non-domestic sexual violence increased by 24% in 2021

The number of complaints of sexual offenses or crimes committed outside the family increased by 24.1% last year, which is related to the public awareness of the subject, according to feminist associations, which, however, are sorry for the many ratings without tracking :

Police and gendarmerie services recorded 71,835 complaints of sex crimes or offenses committed outside the family environment last year, a 24.1% increase on 2020, according to Home Office figures released on Wednesday.

Physical sexual abuse for most

After a period of stagnation between 2019 and 2020, a year marked by the Covid health crisis, the number of complaints has resumed its very strong growth that began in 2017. The majority (73%) of the convicted facts refer to physical sexual violence (rape or attempted rape). According to a study by the Statistical Service of Bovo (SSMSI), the declared victims are mostly women (86%), and more than half are minors (55%).

These figures should be contextualized with the low propensity of victims to report their injured facts. “Less than 10% of victims of sexual violence committed outside the family file a complaint“, SMSSI emphasizes. This increase in the number of complaints is part of “2017/2018 in the context of freedom of speech in the wake of the #Metoo movement“, – it is mentioned in the study.

More legal

Feminist associations also believe that this increase is related to a greater awareness of this topic among the public and especially among women. “Violence against women has always been widespreadFabien El-Khoury, one of the spokespeople for Dare Feminism, told AFP. “Women’s awareness has increased, they know what assault is, that they can file a complaint if a man touches their butt, for example.“.

For Sophie Barre, #NousToutes, Women National Coordinating Membernow feel more legitimate about walking through the door of the police station and filing a complaint“against behavior”was taken as fatal“before. In detail, more and more victims complain weeks, months or years after the damning facts are published.

Thus, by 2021, the acts committed outside the family environment accounted for 40.7% of registered sexual crimes. In 2017, this figure was 31.8 percent. Feminist associations believe, however, that a major issue remains: the justice response to these complaints. “It is disastrous, the facts are not condemned, most of the complaints are rejected“, Sophie Barre condemns.

Associations call for the creation of specialized justice on sexist and sexual violence. A project for which the government is not closed. recently he launched a parliamentary mission to think about such specialized justice. Its conclusions are expected at the beginning of March.

Corsican exception

In France, women are more often victims in large cities, according to data from Beauvau. If the number of victims per inhabitant is very homogeneous between different departments, then Paris is an exception. the capital registers the number of victims per inhabitant (ages 15 to 64) much more than all the others: 1.8 victims per 1000 inhabitants. , compared to the average of 1.1 in the rest of the republic.

A trend that was confirmed in 2022, as the number of complaints about sexual violence in the capital increased by 30% compared to 2021, the Paris prosecutor’s office noted in September. Another exception is Corsica, which records the lowest number of deaths per capita, at 0.6 per 1,000 inhabitants.

As for criminals, 48,294 people were involved in these crimes and offenses in 2021, almost exclusively men (96%), most often adults (73%).