TRUE OR FALSE. Are there really more and more homicides committed by minors, as Fabien Roussel claims?

After the death of several minors, beaten or stabbed, the national secretary of the Communist Party assured Franceinfo that there has been “no increase in homicides” over the last twenty years, but that “homicides committed by young people are more and more numerous”. There is truth and falsehood.

Reactions have multiplied in recent weeks in France, after the death of Shemseddine, 15, beaten up outside school on Thursday April 4 in Viry-Châtillon (Essonne), and after the death of another 15-year-old on Tuesday. April 9, stabbed in Romans-sur-Isère (Drôme). Guest of franceinfo on April 8, the national secretary of the Communist Party Fabien Roussel reacted: “There is no increase in homicides compared to the last 15 or 20 years, however acts of violence and homicides committed by young people are increasing in number”. Has the number of homicides really remained stable over the past twenty years? Are there more and more homicides committed by minors?

No explosion in homicides in France but a reversal of the trend in recent years

It is rather true to say that the number of homicides has not increased over the last twenty years in France, if we compare the number or rate of homicides recorded by the police and the gendarmerie between 2004 and today. today. But in recent years, there has still been an upward trend, as independent expert in police and judicial statistics Cyril Rizk explained to franceinfo. The number of homicides recorded by law enforcement increased by 3% on average each year between 2016 and 2022, specifies a note from the static service of the Ministry of the Interior (SSMSI). These data include intentional homicides and violence resulting in death. The ministry specifies that more in-depth studies of these statistics will be carried out to “carefully” examine these developments and “analyze the determinants”.

We are not talking about an explosion of homicides in France but rather a reversal of the trend. For years, between 1990 and 2015, the homicide rate fell in France, and in the majority of Western countries, as noted at the time by the National Observatory of Delinquency and Penal Responses (ONDRP) or, more recently, the statistics service of the Ministry of the Interior. But since 2016, we have seen a slight inversion of the curve, with a regular, although limited, increase in the number of homicides recorded by the police and the gendarmerie.

The proportion of minors implicated in homicide remains stable

Among these homicides, are there more and more acts committed by minors? The number of minors implicated in homicide has tended to increase since 2016, if we examine a series of data made reliable by the SSMSI, such as the total homicides. But the share in the total homicides remains stable. Those under 18 represent between 7 and 9% of those accused of homicide each year, that is to say of all people suspected of acts considered as homicides at this stage of the investigation. A Senate information report, published in September 2022, makes the same observation. Franceinfo has also compiled data since 2012 on convictions for homicide, from the Ministry of Justice: the share of minors in the total convictions for homicide is also stable, over ten years, at around 6%.

In public debate, we regularly hear that the attackers and victims of homicides are “increasingly younger”. Statistically, this statement is false. Sociologists like Marwan Mohammed, research fellow at the CNRS, or even Laurent Mucchielli, research director at the CNRS, denounce a “caricatural” discourse. This violence between young people has always existed. They cite in particular the phenomenon of “black jackets” in the 1950s and 1960s, marked by clashes between rival gangs, leather jackets on their backs. There is in fact a difference between the perception we have of violence, fueled by the political and media echo and the omnipresence of images today, and the reality of the facts.