Hate Crimes in France: Over 11,000 Racist and Religious Offenses Reported in 2020

"These offenses are equally divided between crimes and misdemeanors (5,500) and contraventions (5,800) committed on the basis of ethnicity, nationality, a supposed race or religion ("of a racist nature"), throughout the French territory," states a press release from the ministry, noting that insults, provocations or public defamation account for nearly 65% of these crimes or misdemeanors.

In 2020, the security services report nearly 2,000 "racist" crimes or misdemeanors, a slight decrease (-2%) compared to 2019, while the contraventions have increased (+ 12%), reports Hespress, noting that the document indicates that this table represents only a small part of the "racist" acts, with disparities between French territories.

"While men, middle-aged people (25-54 years old) and foreigners from an African country are overrepresented among the victims associated with "racist" crimes or misdemeanors recorded by the security forces, the persons implicated in these same crimes or misdemeanors have characteristics much closer to the general population than the persons implicated taken as a whole," notes the same source.

Only one in four victims of "racist" threats or physical violence and one in twenty victims of "racist" insults, on average, reported to the police station or gendarmerie, according to the conclusions of the Cadre de vie et sécurité survey, for the period 2013-2018, adding that in 2018, 1.2 million people aged 14 or over living in metropolitan France (1 person in 45) report having been victims of at least one attack - insults, threats, violence or discrimination - of a racist, anti-Semitic or xenophobic nature.