Latest figures show domestic violence still major problem in France

French authorities recorded 285,000 victims of domestic violence in 2025, mostly women, representing a 5 percent increase in a year. It comes as lawmakers debate a new law against sexual and gender-based violence that is due to be finalised at the beginning of 2027. Issued on: 06/11/2026 - 07:08 3 min Reading time Standing at 284,681 last year, the number of recorded victims of domestic violence in France has more than doubled since 2016, according to the annual study by the Interior Ministry's statistics service, SSMSI. The figures do not necessarily reflect an equivalent increase in violence, according to the SSMSI, but rather an increase in the number of victims reporting abuse, better case management, and protection and sanction mechanisms put in place in recent years. As in previous years, the vast majority of victims are women (84 percent), while those accused are most often men (85 percent) of French nationality (84 percent). Nearly three-quarters of the victims – 73 percent – are aged between 20 and 45. In 2025, 124 people were killed by their spouse or ex-spouse, compared to 134 in 2024, while 433 attempted murders were reported – an increase of 8 percent, according to the SSMSI. "We still have repeat offenders, multiple repeat offenders, with criminal records as long as your arm, who continue to go free with a sense of societal impunity that allows them to commit the act," the Collective Against Femicides by Partners or Exes told French news agency AFP on Thursday. In total, nearly 218,000 people were indicted in 2025, representing an increase of 2 percent. France's new sexual violence bill 'fails to tackle root causes', campaigners warn Reluctance to report According to the Interior Ministry, 63 percent of domestic violence reports involve physical abuse, while verbal or psychological violence accounts for 31 percent of recorded victims. Within this figure, 17 percent of reports are for harassment, 12 percent for threats and 2 percent for violations of privacy or intimacy. Sexual violence, which accounts for 5 percent of victims, is the fastest-growing category. It was up 12 percent compared to the year before, with some 15,100 victims recorded. In 82 percent of cases, the alleged offence is rape or attempted rape, with women making up 97 percent of rape victims. The SSMSI stresses that victims registered by the police represent only a fraction of people who have suffered such violence, and many incidents "may never be reported or may only be reported much later". According to a separate government survey on security issues, only 13 percent of survivors of domestic violence file a complaint with the police. This proportion varies according to the nature of the violence suffered: it reaches 27 percent for survivors of physical violence, compared to 13 percent for victims of verbal or psychological violence and only 9 percent for those subjected to sexual violence by their partner, according to data from 2023-2024. Migrant women in France face ‘double violence’ when reporting sexual abuse New legislation In a sign that victims are gradually speaking out, 31 percent of those who went to police in 2025 reported incidents that occurred in previous years. This figure has increased steadily over the past decade, compared to 19 percent in 2016. "There is a need to mobilise," the #NousToutes feminist collective told AFP. "The idea is really to show that there are a huge number of us who no longer accept this catastrophic situation and who want to live in a different world." France is in the process of overhauling how it investigates and prosecutes sexual violence through a sweeping package of reforms. The so-called comprehensive bill against gender-based and sexual violence, adopted by the National Assembly on 13 October, is due to be examined by the Senate in January. The government hopes it will be adopted by the end of February, before parliament goes into recess ahead of presidential elections in April and May. (with AFP)