In Marseille, very few offenses for sexist contempt in two years

Le Mur de la Honte, from the Stop street harassment collective in Lille.

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• In 2018, the Schiappa law ratified the creation of a new offense aimed at combating street harassment: sexist outrage.

• In the Bouches-du-Rhône, the police headquarters gave its officers unprecedented training on these issues.

• But two years after the creation of this offense, the sexist outrage remains under fire from critics.

In the wake of the creation of the offense of sexist contempt in August 2018 by the Schiappa law, the Bouches-du-Rhône police headquarters had organized unprecedented training for the police.

By verbalizing comments and behavior "with a sexual or sexist connotation" by a simple fine issued in the street, the objective of this new offense was to undermine harassment in the public space.

The amount of the fine can then vary from 90 euros to 1,500 euros, if aggravating circumstances are noted by the enforcement officer.

But two years after the promulgation of the Schiappa law, criticism is still present among Marseille specialists in the problem of street harassment.

Starting with women, who are the first victims.

At first glance, Juliette, a 28-year-old Marseillaise, says she is rather spared from this scourge: "now that I'm not so young, things are a little better", she believes.

But without even taking the time to think about it, bad memories eventually emerge.

“The other day, a man driving a truck asked me for my number because he thought I was pretty.

All in front of my boss.

It was absolute shame!

"A month ago, there was also" this man on a scooter who followed me on my way home for curfew.

The streets were almost empty, it was creepy.

"

Member of the Marseille Feminist collective, Juliette finally remembers a particularly tense session to prepare signs at Cours Julien: “some men came to talk to us just to disturb us.

Quickly, we no longer felt fully safe.

Since then, young women have preferred to meet in Longchamp Park, a place deemed to be "more family-friendly".

A scourge "not specific to Marseille, but to large cities"

Anaïs Bourdet, she made the general public aware of the scourge of street harassment long before Marlène Schiappa arrived at the Secretary of State in charge of Equality between women and men.

In 2012, the graphic designer from Marseille founded the website “Paye Ta Schnek”, Tumblr now housing thousands of testimonials.

She was then 27 years old, had lived in Marseille since her childhood and had just realized that she had been subjected to street harassment "for a very long time".

She ended the adventure in 2019, explaining on social networks to be "exhausted" and "terrorized" by the sum of the stories she received then.

A year earlier, while Marlène Schiappa was beginning her mandate, Anaïs Bourdet had attempted a meeting.

“Marlène Schiappa began to publicize her bill on the offense of sexist contempt.

With other specialists, I asked for an appointment with the hope of being heard.

For me, legislating was a mistake and we should instead focus on training police officers.

I believe that this meeting was not useful, because our opinions were not taken into account.

She then concludes: "creating the offense of sexist contempt is like putting a bandage on a gaping wound.

"And believes that" this scourge is not specific to Marseille or to certain cultures or standards of living, but more broadly to large cities.

"

1,746 offenses across the country

A scourge to which, therefore, the prefecture of Bouches-du-Rhône had decided to react.

After a new law and an unprecedented training of the police on these questions, what conclusions can we draw from it today?

Nationally, police departments have recorded 1,746 gender contempt offenses in two years.

The Paca region is the third region in terms of number of offenses, behind Hauts-de-France and Ile-de-France.

As for the Bouches-du-Rhône, they rank in the top 4 departments after the North, Paris and the Rhône.

In other words, the offense of sexist contempt is more counted in urbanized areas, including the capital and the metropolitan areas of Lille, Lyon and Marseille.

In this regard, the prefecture of Bouches-du-Rhône tells

that only 46 offenses have been recorded in Marseille in two years.

The 1st arrondissement tops the statistics, with a modest record of 17 offenses since August 2018. These figures are all the more to be put into perspective as the state services do not specify whether the perpetrators have been identified or not. ... Because in cases where the sexist outrage is not directly noted in the street at the fateful moment, the victims are obliged to travel to file a complaint.

And in these cases, one can only imagine the difficulty in finding the culprits.

“Disappointing” figures

Alexandra Louis, Marseille deputy rapporteur for the law on gender-based violence, admits herself to finding the Marseille figures "quite disappointing".

On December 4, the elected representative will submit her assessment report on the Schiappa law to the Ministers of Justice and Equality between women and men.

She then explains that she also analyzed the balance sheets of other large cities.

In comparison, she believes that “Paris and Lyon have started a real work, in particular on harassment in public transport.

In Marseille, training should be set up for all stakeholders, and all local communities should work hand in hand.

"And beyond the figures, the elected wants" to insist on the symbolic and dissuasive virtue of the entry of sexist outrage into the Penal Code.

"

While the law was still under debate, Anaïs Bourdet had precisely confronted the deputy Alexandra Louis during a meeting organized by the Marsactu media at the Théâtre de l'Oeuvre.

"I know that she is a member of Parliament very involved in these subjects," remembers Anaïs Bourdet.

But in my opinion, it is in line with government policy, which tends to use the issues of violence against women to communicate.

"As for the subject of police training, Alexandra Louis welcomes the initiative that had been carried by the prefecture of Bouches-du-Rhône and ensures that" even if everything is not perfect, great progress has been made these last years.

"

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• Sexism

• Marlene Schiappa

• Marseilles

• Society

• Bullying