In France, 8,500 crimes and offenses of a racist, xenophobic or anti-religious nature were recorded by the Ministry of the Interior in 2023. A report made public this Wednesday March 20 highlights a 32% increase in these offenses compared to the year 2022. A jump linked in particular to the situation in the Middle East and which also affects foreigners of African origin.
1 min
In its report, the statistical service of the Ministry of the Interior remains vague and groups under the same heading both crimes and offenses of a racist, xenophobic and anti-religious nature. It is also impossible to know whether these are anti-Christian, anti-Muslim or anti-Semitic.
The only indication is a graph which follows the evolution month by month, over the whole of 2023: it shows a clear increase in attacks from October, the date of the start of the war between Israel and Hamas.
Men, over-represented compared to the general population
In detail, it is insults, defamation and public provocations which represent the majority of these crimes and offenses. A rarer fact concerns attacks on graves which increased by 40% in 2023, without us knowing, again, the type of grave targeted.
Finally, regarding victims, it appears that men aged 35 to 44 are over-represented compared to the general population, as are foreigners from an African country. Around 11% of them were victims of a crime or misdemeanor of a racist, xenophobic or anti-religious nature, even though they represent less than 2% of the general French population.
Read alsoRacism against black people is increasing in the European Union