In 5 years the number of reports of sexual violence outside the family has increased by 77%

This is called soaring. The Interior Ministry published a report on sexual violence outside the family on Wednesday 30 November. The data, established on the number of complaints registered by the police and gendarmerie services in 2021, therefore show a significant increase.

The vast majority of victims are women

“Between 2020 and 2021, the number of registered victims of sexual offenses committed outside the family increased by 24%”, indicates the Beauvau place relation. Of the 72,000 sexual offenses recorded that year, the majority (73%) involved acts of physical sexual assault. As for the victims, the imbalance is evident. A large majority (86%) are women, and among these, a majority are also minors (55%). Among the 48,300 people involved, however, almost all (96%) are men, most of the time adults (73%).

The #MeToo effect

According to data from the Interior Ministry, this upward trend is not recent, and has instead continued a “very strong progression” since 2017. Thus, in 5 years, the number of victims registered by the police increased by 77%. According to the report, this increase is partly due to the free speech fostered by the #MeToo movement and complaints “are more frequently about old facts”. While these figures give an idea of ​​the extent of the phenomenon, they are not representative of the true number of victims of sexual violence outside the family context. The report recalls that only 10% of the victims file a complaint.