• The statistics service of the Ministry of the Interior has published its 2021 report on insecurity and delinquency.

  • Generally speaking, the numbers are increasing in almost all areas.

  • Some departments, including the North, stand out unfavorably with regard to the national average.

As every year, the Ministerial Statistical Service for Internal Security (SSMSI) publishes its report on the figures for insecurity and delinquency in France.

A particularly exhaustive 236-page pad, which compiles data from the police, the gendarmerie, and the results of the Insee “Living environment and security” victimization survey.

We're not going to lie to each other, there's really nothing to be happy about.

In general, between 2020 and 2021, the figures are increasing in 9 of the 13 categories determined by the Ministry of the Interior.

And in the North, we follow this trend often more markedly than elsewhere.

Victims of intentional assault and battery

The first category in which the North stands out negatively is that concerning the number of victims of intentional assault and battery against people over the age of 15, outside the family circle.

With Overseas, Paris, Seine-Saint-Denis and Bouches-du-Rhône, the North has the highest rate of intentional assault and battery, with more than 5.9 victims aged 15 or over per 1,000 inhabitants.

Worse, the national increase of 12% is largely driven by those recorded in the North (+18%), Paris (+15%) or the Rhône (+15%).

The same goes for domestic violence, which jumped by 14% in France in 2021, and whose increase is increased by +1.1 points by the North.

Residential burglaries

For housing burglaries, even if the North is not in the lead, it nevertheless appears in the list of departments where the rate is the highest.

If Guyana is the champion in this area, with 12.1 burglaries per 1,000 dwellings in 2021, the North, Loire-Atlantique or Gironde show a rate higher than 7.1 burglaries per 1,000 dwellings.

Thefts from vehicles

While the number of vehicle thefts is down significantly in the North, around -8%, the report indicates an opposite trend for thefts of accessories from vehicles.

Like Oise or Haute-Garonne, the rate of theft of accessories in the North is greater than 1.4 per 1,000 inhabitants.

It should be noted that this rate, in rural areas, is 0.07 theft per 1,000 inhabitants.

Voluntary destruction and damage

The department is also in a good place for the facts of voluntary destruction and degradation.

As the report states, “Paris, Seine-Saint-Denis, the North and Gironde also have a particularly high number of destructions and damage per inhabitant in 2021”, above 8.7 facts per 1,000 inhabitants, when the national average is set at 8.

Drug use and trafficking

The Bouches-du-Rhône are the undisputed champions in the number of cases for narcotics use, with more than 8 cases per 1,000 inhabitants, even ahead of Seine-Saint-Denis and its 7.2 cases per 1,000 inhabitants.

On the North side, with more than 3.6 cases per 1,000 inhabitants, we still remain above the national average, established at 3.3 cases per 1,000 inhabitants.

On the other hand, if one consumes in a relatively moderate way in the North, one traffics more.

With a 22% increase in the number of people accused of drug trafficking in 2021, the North is one of the 7 departments that are pulling up the national figures.

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  • Hauts-de-France

  • Delinquency

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  • Statistics