60% of minor rioters come from single-parent families, according to the Ministry of Justice

Some 60% of minors presented to justice after the riots in reaction to Nahel’s death in July came from a single-parent family, the Ministry of Justice told AFP on Saturday October 7. Those under 18 represent around a third of the people who participated in the riots following the death of Nahel, 17, killed at the end of June during a police check in Nanterre (Hauts-de-Seine).

In total, 1,180 minors were identified by the courts as perpetrators of offenses during the riots, according to figures from the Chancellery. Among them, 59% were aged 16 and 17, and 40% were aged 13 to 15, the overwhelming majority of them boys (96%). Half of the offenses committed are attacks on property (such as looting of stores) and they are very little concerned by damage to public property such as town halls and schools (approximately 2-3%).

After the riots, the executive quickly emphasized the responsibility of parents, Emmanuel Macron and his government relaunching the idea – recurrent on the right – of sanctioning them financially “from the first stupidity” of their offspring, as the Head of State said. “Naturally, we cannot have a systematic answer, we have to do it case by case”declared Friday on franceinfo Eric Dupond-Moretti, inviting us to distinguish “the parents who are able, and who are not, and then the overwhelmed mother”.