- 970 murders were committed in 2019 in France compared to 894 in 2018, an increase of 8.5%.
- When added to the attempts, this is the highest number since 1972.
- The police officers interviewed by 20 Minutes explain this worrying increase by the violence which is more and more present in society.
While it has been stable for two years, the number of homicides jumped by more than 8% in 2019. Last year, 970 people were killed in France, 76 more than in 2018. This increase is all the more worrying as it occurs, indicates the SSMSI (Ministerial Statistical Service of Internal Security) in a note published in January, after two years of stability. And after a decrease in the number of murders by 60% between 1994 and 2014.
In addition, France was not particularly affected by terrorism in 2019, since only four victims are to be deplored during the attack on the Prefecture of Police. The past year has nevertheless been more deadly than 2015 (872 dead including 131 during the January and November attacks) and than 2016 (892 victims including 86 in Nice during July 14).
"If we add to the homicides attempted murders, we get the highest number since 1972, when the police statistics tool was put in place," explains Christophe Soullez, director of the National Observatory of delinquency and criminal responses. "But," he said, "we still lack a little perspective to see if we are in a deep movement or if this increase is cyclical. "
No "scientific explanation"
How to explain this sudden increase? "It is always very difficult to give explanations, especially since unfortunately, today, we have enough information to allow us to formulate serious hypotheses", continues Christophe Soullez, stressing that France "is one of the few democratic countries in the world not knowing how many homicides or attempted homicides there have been with firearms. ” Police statistics do not in fact give any information on the victims, the procedures, the places where the acts are committed. Nothing that would "know what phenomena we are facing".
On the Place Beauvau side, we recognize that the number of murders "increases a little", but we lack "scientific explanation" to explain it. In the entourage of Christophe Castaner, we observe that the “settling of scores” against the backdrop of drug trafficking has tended to increase in recent times due to the war waged by the police against drugs. “We dismantled many networks, we did a real job on it, like in Besançon at La Planoise. As a result, there are sometimes clan wars to recover territories and fix drug outlets there. ”
"Daily violence"
"This is completely false," protests a member of the judicial police. Before adding: “It is true that there are settling of scores in small towns where previously there were none. But in Marseille, where there were the most, their number is at the lowest for ten years. And nationally, they even tend to drop even a little. This commissioner, on the other hand, observes an increase in "everyday violence". Clashes between gangs of young people who end in blood. Like January 21, when a 16 year old teenager was killed, stabbed during a brawl by a young person of the same age, in Chartres. Or as on January 29, when a 14-year-old boy was killed in the Grange-aux-Belles district of Paris.
What the general secretary of the Synergie officers union, Patrice Ribeiro, calls "the impoverishment of society". There are these young city delinquents whom the police see over time adopting the methods used by organized crime. Who no longer hesitate to "kidnap people and torture them in cellars for shit debts of a few hundred euros". But he also observes a rise "in the radicality of social relations", a phenomenon which does not only concern thugs.
“More and more things that used to be settled in a civilized way are now being beaten. It's a trend. Sometimes, for an altercation between motorists, people are lynched or stabbed, "continues the trade unionist, who denounces" a feeling of impunity resulting from a lack of firm and appropriate criminal response ". Violence which is also reflected, in statistics recorded by police and gendarmes, by an 8% increase in assault and battery in 2019.
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