Domestic violence: 15% increase in online reports since confinement

The sexual and gender-based violence online reporting platform recorded a 15% increase in calls from victims since the re-containment on October 30, Marlène Schiappa said on Tuesday.

The first confinement, "unfortunately conducive to domestic violence", had already seen "an explosion" of reports on the platform, five times more than normal, recalled the Minister for the Interior.

Recruits for the reconfinement

"Even if it is still too early to say that the reports will explode again (...) we are already seeing an increase in reports on this platform of around 15%", said Marlène Schiappa during a trip in Guyancourt, in Yvelines, on the platform's "police" site.

A "gendarmerie" site is also installed in Rennes.

Since their launch two years ago, police and gendarmes have handled "more than 20,000 chats" via the stopviolence platform, said the minister.

The Guyancourt site, which operates 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, has 30 police officers, including 12 recruited "at the end of October in anticipation of confinement", his entourage told AFP. 

No need for a certificate in the event of violence

These agents, attentive to the victims who have the possibility of remaining anonymous, can direct them to a police station or a gendarmerie brigade for a complaint or, in the event of refusal, to specialized associations.

If an immediate threat hangs over the person, a police patrol can be dispatched to intervene on the spot.

The Minister for Gender Equality, Élisabeth Moreno, present with her counterpart in charge of child protection, Adrien Taquet, recalled that "women during the period of confinement do not need a certificate or certificate to leave the marital home when they are victims of violence In terms of domestic violence, there is also a dedicated telephone line, 3919, managed by the National Federation of Solidarity Women (FNSF).