MAP. Domestic violence: the number of victims has doubled since 2016, figures department by department

Domestic violence on the rise. The number of recorded victims increased by 10% between 2022 and 2023, according to the annual study of the Ministerial Statistical Service for Internal Security (SSMSI), which places this continued increase in the “context of freedom of speech and improvement reception conditions for victims. As in previous years, the vast majority of victims are women (85%) while those accused are most often men (86%) and of French nationality (83%), notes the SSMSI.

“This increase in the number of registered victims shows that more and more women continue to take the step of filing a complaint and this is excellent news,” said the president of the Women’s Foundation Anne-Cécile Mailfert. “Now the budgets must follow, we need additional resources to support, investigate, hear, judge and above all also support the victims who, from the moment they file a complaint, put themselves in danger,” adds- her, evoking the risks of reprisals from the spouse or ex-spouse.

Domestic violence in two thirds of cases

According to the Ministry of the Interior, two thirds of domestic violence (64%) consist of physical violence. 32% of victims have suffered verbal or psychological violence, including moral harassment (17%), threats (12%), invasions of privacy (1%) or insults and defamation (1%). 4% were victims of sexual violence. For 2% of victims of moral harassment, the facts led to suicide or a suicide attempt, specifies the SSMSI.

Pas-de-Calais in the lead

As in 2022, Pas-de-Calais, Réunion, Nord, Somme and Seine-Saint-Denis “are among the departments which display the highest rates of victims recorded per 1000 inhabitants” aged 15 to 64 years old. , according to the ministry. These data are not representative of the phenomenon of domestic violence as a whole, the victims recorded by the security services representing only a part of the people who have suffered this type of violence each year, “these facts may never be reported or be later”, notes the SSMSI.

According to the Experienced and Feelings in Security (VRS) survey, only 14% of victims filed a complaint with the security services for the events they suffered in 2022. For the Ministry of the Interior, awareness society's growing awareness of the phenomenon of domestic violence and the measures adopted at the end of the 2019 Grenelle meeting on domestic violence to encourage victims to file complaints appear to “have benefited more from old facts than from the most recent facts “: the “portion of victims having filed a complaint for facts prior to their year of registration thus increased from 19% in 2016 to 29% in 2022” and remained “stable in 2023”, according to the authorities.

Feminist associations demand more money

Feminist associations regularly urge Emmanuel Macron, who has made the fight for gender equality and against violence against women “a great national cause”, to strengthen existing systems and increase the allocated budget. They are demanding, among other things, a “comprehensive framework law against sexual violence” and a budget of 2.6 billion euros per year.