Program eases women’s process for abuse reports
PARIS — France is starting a new process for women to formally report domestic violence and sexual and other abuse, circumventing police stations where many victims feel uncomfortable filing such complaints.
The measure comes after tens of thousands of women in France shared testimonies online about police victimblaming them or mishandling complaints as they reported sexual abuse. The government has also come under pressure in recent years to better protect women from deadly domestic violence.
Junior Interior Minister Marlene Schiappa said alternative locations for filing police complaints can include a friend’s home or some other place where abused women feel safe.
“There are women who tell us that they don’t dare to come to a police station because they are afraid of not being welcomed, because it’s hard to talk about things that are taboo (with) an unknown person in uniform in a foreign environment,” she said. “That’s why we are lifting one after the other, the obstacles they are facing.”
An annual survey led by national statistics institute INSEE found that only 10% of victims of sexual abuse in France file a formal complaint.
And police this week reported a 10% increase in reports of domestic violence last year. It is estimated that more than 200,000 women each year are physically or sexually abused by their partner or ex-partner, according to INSEE.
The latest government initiative will try sending police officers where women have found shelter so that they can file formal complaints. This will allow victims to stay “in an environment where you feel safe, at a friend’s house, at your lawyer’s house, at the hospital, at your doctor’s house,” Schiappa said.
This comes in addition to other efforts made in recent years, including training more police officers, creating a list of questions asked to assess danger, and the possibility to alert police by text message or an internet platform, she added.
European lawmakers called Thursday for binding rules across the 27-nation EU to better protect women, noting that 1 in 3 women in the bloc experiences sexual or other physical violence in her lifetime, and that half of women slain in the EU are killed by someone close to them.
In France, the new process of filing complaints is being rolled out in select regions around the country for now with the aim to make it nationwide.