Despite the collective awareness raised by the #MeToo movement in October 2017, violence against women remains widespread. Against a backdrop of greater openness and increased action by the public authorities, the number of cases of sexual violence and domestic violence brought before the courts has never been higher. However, the judicial system’s response to such violence raises questions and sparks debate. This paper therefore sheds new light on the judicial handling of violence against women, the scale of cases dismissed without further action, and the differing trends over time between Domestic violence and Sexual violence.
The judicial handling of sexual violence and domestic violence in France
This paper aims to shed new light on the judicial handling of violence against women and how this has evolved over time.
Reference IPP Policy Brief No. 107
Presentation
Key Results
- This note is based on previously unpublished administrative data covering the vast majority of criminal cases handled by public prosecutors’ offices, which were either dismissed or concluded at first instance in the Correctional court or the Juvenile court between 2012 and 2022, excluding cases dismissed and those referred to the Assize courts and criminal courts following the preliminary investigation.
- The number of cases of sexual violence and domestic violence dealt with by the courts has risen sharply since 2017, driven by an increase in the reporting of past offences.
- As with most criminal offences, the rate of cases not prosecuted is high, affecting 83 per cent of cases of sexual violence and 73 per cent of cases of domestic violence. For other offences involving violence against the person, this figure stands at 84 per cent.
- Sexual violence and domestic violence cases are mainly deemed by the public prosecutor’s office to lack sufficient evidence and are therefore dismissed. This differs from other criminal offences, the majority of which are dismissed because the perpetrator is unknown.
- Perpetrators who are prosecuted are often convicted, with heavier sentences for sexual violence than for other offences against the person.
- Whilst the proportion of domestic violence cases not prosecuted fell from 73 per cent in 2012 to 67 per cent in 2019, the opposite trend is observed for sexual violence. The proportion of sexual assaults not prosecuted has thus risen from 80 per cent to 83 per cent.
- The increase in prosecutions of perpetrators of domestic violence has been accompanied by harsher prison sentences being handed down to them.
Method and Data
The data used for this study were sourced from the CASSIOPÉE case management software. This software is used by the courts to process all offences relating to fifth-class contraventions, misdemeanours and crimes, alleged against natural persons (adults and minors) or legal entities, with the information primarily entered by court registries.
The data extracted from the CASSIOPÉE statistical database by the Ministry of Justice provides information on all criminal cases received by judges, dismissed or concluded at first instance in the Correctional court or the Juvenile court between 2012 and 2021.
This paper thus constitutes one of the first research studies to utilise these data, drawing in particular on their longitudinal dimension. However, as the data are available only for cases that have been concluded and not for those still pending, they must be interpreted with caution for the last two years of the time series. Furthermore, the data provided do not cover cases dismissed during investigation, nor cases tried in assize courts or departmental criminal courts – which, however, account for only a small proportion of cases handled by the criminal justice system in general (Ministry of Justice, 2019).
Partners
This work received government funding administered by the French National Research Agency (ANR) under the PgSE ‘Investissements d’avenir’ programme (reference ANR-17-EURE-0001) and the ANR SOCOCITY programme (reference ANR-18-CE22-0013) for funding of the Secure Data Access Centre (CASD).