International Journal on Criminology Volume 7, Number 2, Spring 2020 | Page 14

2019: Homicide Big Comeback in France
ures for 2015 and 2016, 872 and 892 victims respectively, have the particularity of
including the mass crimes resulting from the attacks of 13 November 2015 and 14
July 2016.
We are therefore faced with the strong possibility that the final figure for
homicides in 2019 could exceed 900, which would make it a deadlier year than
the years when the Bataclan attacks or the killing of the Promenade des Anglais in
Nice occured, albeit without any major attack.
But there is also a clear trend towards homicide (homicides, attempts and
intentional assault and battery resulting in death) which reverses a long process
of decline in ultimate violence. Indeed, if all homicides and attempted homicides
are taken together, the summary table shows a situation that slowly deteriorated
between 1972 and 1983 (from 2,093 to 3,183 incidents, i.e. an overall increase of
52 per cent).
There are considerable differences in the settlement of accounts: 69 in 1972,
105 in 1973, 85 in 1974, then after a certain stability, 184 in 1983). The same is true
for children, with a high level in 1972 (140), a rapid decrease (44 in 1978) and a
sharp increase in 1982 (109). From 1987 onwards, erratic movements can be observed
(sharp fall in 1987: 2,496 victims including 59 children) followed by a sharp
rise in 1988 (2,835 including 101 children). The level of homicide will remain high
with a good year in 1994 for minors (only 13 victims).
It was not until 2009 that the threshold of 2,000 victims was broken at the
bottom (1,767 incidents). This level will rise again in 2011 and accelerate sharply
in 2015 (2,805 victims following the attacks of 13 November), and will continue
until 2018 with 3,168 recorded incidents (the highest level in 35 years and the
second worst record in modern homicide statistics), including 84 settlements of
accounts (the highest level in 10 years) and 67 minor victims.
The balance sheet published at the beginning of 2020 by the statistical service
of the Ministry of the Interior nevertheless confirms this deterioration with
an increase in the number of homicide victims (including assault and battery followed
by death) of 12.4% in one year, thus beating the tragic record of 1983 (3,562
acts against 3,183) and becoming the worst result since 1972 in gross numbers and
the third in relation to the population with a rate of 5.32 per 100,000 inhabitants
against 5.68 in 1983 and 5.42 in 1986.
The data will have to be adjusted in the coming weeks, but the characteristics
of the phenomenon will also have to be clarified: methods of operation (firearms,
knives or other weapons), profiles of victims and perpetrators, and the places
where crimes are committed.
In any case, a profound return of physical violence seems to be taking place,
particularly in the West. It is being ignored, whether voluntarily or involuntarily,
or underestimated. Its causes are undoubtedly multiple, but the increase in the
number of victims cannot be underestimated for much longer.
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