Reports of sexist and sexual transgressions skyrocketed in France last year, with men being identified as the perpetrators in 97% of the 3,400 cases recorded by police forces around the country.

The number of sexual misconduct cases reported to the authorities in 2023 rose by a full 19% compared to 2022.

Of the 3,400 cases recorded by French police forces, 2,700 were classified as violations, while a further 700 incidents were categorised as misdemeanours.

88% of those who came forward to make a report were women, with the vast majority being under the age of 30. 15% were under the age of 16. Overall, 92% of the women who made a report were of French nationality, with a further 5% being African.

Conversely, the perpetrators of these acts were almost exclusively male—97%—and around three-quarters of these men held French citizenship.

Police data indicates that 14% of these incidents occurred on public transport networks, such as buses, trams and trains, as well as in affiliated stations.

The publicly available report into the rise in sexual misconduct cases also reveals that the larger a town or city is, the higher the rate of incidents is likely to be.

In a study on violence against women in France, released in 2020, 99% of those polled claimed to have suffered some form of harassment in a public space. 86% suggested that the incidents had sexual undertones, while 75% of the women who answered the survey said that they had, at least once, been followed on the street.

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