Guillaume Dominguez // Credits: MYRIAM TIRLER / HANS LUCAS / HANS LUCAS VIA AFP 9:59 a.m., April 6, 2024

Montpellier, Viry-Châtillon, Tours… A week marked by acts of ultra-violence at school. This alarming phenomenon seems more and more frequent around French schools. Europe 1 deciphers this worrying trend. 

Ultra-violence is gaining ground at school. Samara, 13 years old, attacked this Tuesday in front of her school by a group of teenage girls against a backdrop of religious disagreement, a 15 year old boy died of his injuries after a beating Thursday evening in Viry-Châtillon, and a 14-year-old girl seriously injured in Tours on Thursday evening by several classmates amid a romantic quarrel. Cases suggesting that French youth are becoming more and more violent. 

Even if ultra-violence is very difficult to quantify, this phenomenon is part of the 7% increase in crimes and offenses revealed at the end of January by the Ministry of the Interior. Beyond the increase in the phenomenon, it is above all the seriousness of these acts that the police note. “Today, in the brawls, we are stabbing and hitting the head with hammers,” Reda Belaj, spokesperson for the Police Unit union, told Europe 1.

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Younger and younger authors 

Violence perpetrated by increasingly young perpetrators. According to the Ministry of the Interior, a majority of crimes and offenses in France are committed by young people between 15 and 24 years old. Acts linked to impunity felt by young people, according to Reda Belaj. “Today, a young person who is arrested with a 30-centimeter blade on him will never receive, even though it is provided for by law, a fine of 15,000 euros and a year in prison. Young people are taking action now with complete impunity", underlines the police officer.  

A feeling of impunity exacerbated by the mass effect on social networks which results when adolescents meet each other at school. “There can be homophobia, fatphobia, sexism, problems linked to religions. On social networks, they have come to the fore and the only possible reaction is violence”, testifies Jérémy Destenave, professor of SVT in a college. The influence of social networks that we find in the case of young Samara, a teenager beaten up in Montpellier, victim of online harassment for several weeks.