New figures from the police and gendarmerie services in France have revealed a substantial increase in sexual violence outside of the family, with the number of such instances having increased by 24.1% last year.
The figures, released by France’s Ministry of the Interior on Wednesday, November 30th, showed that policing authorities recorded 71,835 complaints last year for sexual crimes or offenses committed outside of a family setting, an uptick of 24.1% compared to 2020, the Paris-based newspaper Le Figaro reports.
The uptick comes after complaints over these kinds of incidents remained relatively unchanged between 2019 and 2020, a year defined by the COVID-19 pandemic. The increase witnessed in 2021, therefore, resumes what was observed to be a consistent rise that started in 2017.
Of the 71,835 complaints recorded last year, a substantial majority (73%) were instances of physical sexual violence (rape, attempted rape, assault, or sexual assault), while the vast majority of victims (86%) were victims, and well over half (55%) were those under the age of eighteen.
The Ministerial Statistical Service for Homeland Security (SSMSI), which compiled the statistics, notes that the true figures are likely much higher in light of the low propensity of victims to file complaints. “Less than 10% of victims of sexual violence committed outside the family setting file a complaint,” the SSMI emphasized in its report.
The study also notes that women are considerably more likely to be victims of sexual violence in large metropolitan areas. While the number of victims per inhabitants is uniform through France’s various departments, Paris represents a distinct outlier, recording 1.8 victims per 1,000 inhabitants (from 15 to 64 years old) compared to an average of 1.1 in the rest of the country.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, of the 48,294 perpetrators that were involved in the recorded crimes and offenses in 2021, nearly all (96%) were men, while most (73%) were adults.
