Ile-de-France residents express growing concern over time regarding delinquency:
“22.3% place it at the top of their concerns at the start of 2023, compared to 15.7% in 2019”
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In other words: the government is not doing enough in the fight against insecurity.
And justice is still considered too lax.
“Although nearly one person in three (34.3%) cites a lack of morality as the main cause of this delinquency, many people rather cite too lenient justice (29.8%), or even unemployment (27 .7%)”
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The results of the twelfth edition of the Victimization and feeling of insecurity in Île-de-France survey have just been released.
It took place by telephone between January and March 2023, i.e. a few months before the urban riots which broke out in the summer of 2023. It is therefore not the magnifying mirror of cyclical fear.
More than 9,000 Ile-de-France residents, aged 15 and over, representative of the regional population by department, were asked to express themselves on their living conditions, and more particularly on their experience of insecurity.
This survey, carried out every two years since 2001, is a unique system on a regional scale and was eagerly awaited.
The Paris Region Institute which publishes it is an organization attached to the Île-de-France region, the most populous in the country with its 12 million inhabitants.
His work constitutes a rich and relevant source of information, because it is rooted in the long term.
Important lesson:
“poverty will emerge in 2023 for almost half of the population (46%) as the first priority for action assigned to the government, a rate which has continued to increase since 2015”
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Pollution also represents a growing concern in the minds of Ile-de-France residents (17.7% cited it as a concern in 2023 compared to 6.3% in 2001).
Concerning insecurity, the authors of the study make this observation:
"Although concern about delinquency has increased over the past several surveys, the proportion of Ile-de-France residents feeling insecure has nevertheless changed relatively little: 54.4% are concerned in 2023 while they were 53.4% in 2019
.
This still makes a majority of Ile-de-France residents feel this concern.
But we are far, it is true, from the 68.2% of the year 2001, under Jospin, when France had passed the bar of 4 million crimes and misdemeanors per year, wiping the plaster of the indigent implementation place of
“community policing”
.
The relatively stable feeling of insecurity must be analyzed in detail.
According to the Paris Region Institute,
“45.1% of Ile-de-France residents say they are afraid at least from time to time at home, in their neighborhood or on public transport, a figure comparable to that of 2021”
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Furthermore,
“fear in transport remains stable at 38%, one of the historic lows since 2001”
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91.5% of Ile-de-France residents consider their neighborhood pleasant to live in
Beyond the feeling of insecurity, there is the weight of the facts.
Ile-de-France residents were questioned about what they actually experienced or suffered in terms of delinquency, in order to assess as closely as possible the proportion of victims.
On this point, the Paris Region Institute is categorical:
“After a drop measured during the previous survey, carried out in 2021 in a context marked by the COVID 19 crisis, this new survey confirms a stabilization of the victim rate compared to 2021, and a decrease compared to 2019
.
Thus,
“43% of Ile-de-France residents were victims of attacks against themselves or their household property during the three years preceding the survey, compared to 43.2% in 2021, a marked drop compared to 2019 (50, 9%).
After a significant increase in reports of sexual assault between 2011 and 2021, these are also stabilizing, with 2.7% of Ile-de-France residents declaring themselves victims of at least one sexual assault in three years
.
The Paris police prefect, Laurent Nuñez, will perhaps see encouraging signs on the effect of the security actions carried out, under his authority, by the police forces of the Parisian urban area.
The large-scale survey by the Paris Region Institute sheds light on other key elements for assessing the quality of life in the Île-de-France region.
In terms of equipment, for example,
“if an improvement is perceived at the level of educational establishments (87.9% satisfied in 2023 compared to 71.8% in 2001), public transport (84% compared to 75.9% in 2001) as well as businesses (78.3% compared to 70.4% in 2001), this is not the case for administrative equipment (76.8% compared to 84% in 2001)
.
A sign of state disengagement?
Generally speaking,
“France residents continue to be very satisfied with their living environment, since 91.5% consider their neighborhood pleasant to live in, and 89.9% safe or rather safe”
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Ile-de-France residents are demanding more prison places
Furthermore,
“the reduction in nuisances in the immediate environment deserves to be underlined, with, in particular, notable improvements concerning the annoying presence of gangs of young people, (18.9% against 28.5% in 2001) and acts of vandalism (22.6% compared to 32% in 2001)”
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Obviously, this was before the riots of summer 2023…
The Paris Region institute takes care to specify:
“This survey covers attacks committed in 2020, 2021 and 2022, the impact of the measures put in place during the health crisis (lockdowns, curfews, etc.) on delinquency during this period nevertheless deserves to be considered in the interpretation of developments
.
He also does not fail to provide these very useful details concerning the avenues favored by those surveyed to improve their security situation:
“If prevention remains the solution to be promoted as a priority for 68% of Ile-de-France residents, the construction of new prisons raises growing approval (8.7%, a figure that has been rising steadily since 2001)
. ”
The icing on the cake:
“More than 7 out of 10 Ile-de-France residents approve of the use of video surveillance in public places
,” reveals this study.
A real plebiscite for authorities keen to strengthen security resources, on the eve of the Olympic and Paralympic Games in the summer of 2024.