• In France, 53 departments have family protection houses.

    In 2020, the authorities counted more than 100,000 victims of intra-family violence.

  • Outside the criminal process, victims, children, but also perpetrators are supported by the authorities and associations.

  • Report in the Var, with the specialized gendarmerie unit and En Chemin, an association that offers support and accommodation to victims and perpetrators of intra-family violence.

Children access it through a back door.

The La-Valette-du-Var gendarmerie group, not far from Marseille, has been home to a Family Protection House (MPF) since last March, a device initiated following the Grenelle on domestic violence at the end of 2019.

In a room populated with plush and colorful, the head marshal Elodie Reysset left her uniform aside.

"I always question the children in civilian clothes", because they can remember the police arriving at the home to question one of the parents, explains this mother of two children.

Behind a two-way window, one of his four colleagues - two women and two men - from the MPF, records the interview.

"A CD goes to the prosecution, a copy remains for investigators."

"For a long time, we put the children aside"

Since the beginning of the year nearly 200 children or minors have been heard in these premises, an increase of 50% compared to last year at this time. Today, children are almost systematically heard. "We put them aside for a long time, by not necessarily considering them as victims when they are not directly the object of violence and by not listening to them", regrets Elodie Reysset.

The gendarmes of Var, whose sector covers half of the population of the department (1.2 million people in winter, 2 million in summer) but 86% of its surface have already intervened "nearly 1,200 times this year for business of domestic violence, ”explains Sébastien Gibier, squadron leader.

"The files are often mixed," resumes the Maréchale des Logis.

We have psychological violence with sexual violence.

In the last letters rogatory that I dealt with, there were ten different offenses.

"

“It is not enough to keep the victim and the perpetrator away.

We must also repair "

Following the gendarmes, a social worker takes over with the families, often mothers. "I try to paint the picture and understand the immediate needs of these people," says Laetitia Coulonier. “It is not enough to keep the victim and the perpetrator away. We must also repair, ”she continues. And to help, apart from the penal response, families, generally women with children, sometimes alone, are referred to associations.

In the Var, En Chemin, an association created in 2004, provides some 200 housing units, three of which are specifically adapted to emergency situations of intra-family violence. “The police have the keys and can take shelter on weekends if they feel it is necessary. Then, on Monday, our social workers take over, ”says Anne Bouthors, general manager of En chemin. Since the start of the year, a little less than 250 people, not only victims of intra-family violence, but also a few migrants and people in precarious situations, have been accommodated by this association whose accommodation can go up to 18 months. "Along this course, the question of legal support but also professional integration is also posed",because often financial independence is the best protection against domestic violence.

"It's not always up to the victims to go away"

In recent months, the association has also developed a care center for perpetrators of violence, who often have problems of addiction, or even polyaddiction.

"It is important to avoid recidivism", underlines Anne Bouthors, whose association manages ten housing units dedicated to perpetrators, "because it is not always for the victims to leave".

In France, 53 departments have family protection houses.

In 2020, the authorities counted more than 100,000 victims of intra-family violence.

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  • Gendarmerie

  • Child protection

  • Domestic violence

  • Society