Eric Mathais is a prosecutor in Bobigny, which is usually called “the first court in France after Paris”. A demanding court for its officials and staff, in the most criminogenic and poorest department of metropolitan France, where 30% of households live below the poverty line. A court also where cases of domestic violence are numerous, Seine-Saint-Denis winning the sad record of the metropolitan department where the number of women of victims of domestic violence was the highest in 2021, according to the latest figures from the statistical service of the Ministry of the Interior.
Eric Mathais, what is it, prosecutor of Seine-Saint-Denis? Can you describe your daily work to us?
Seine-Saint-Denis has very specific sociological, economic and population characteristics. Here is for example a figure: officially the population is 1.670 million people, but in reality it is estimated that there are between 1.8 and 2 million inhabitants. There are therefore 200,000, 300,000 or 400,000 people not officially resident in Seine-Saint-Denis, foreigners in an irregular situation. This weighs on the figures of justice but also all the public services, because these are calculated on the official situation. It is also the most criminogenic department in metropolitan France with endemic violence. We work under very high pressure, and everyone knows it. So with the exception of one hearing per month, I hardly take care of the jurisdictional anymore, I only do organization, coordination and I try to ensure that the criminal policy is as harmonious as possible. .
Can you tell us about the latest feminicides in Seine-Saint-Denis? Is there a feminicide that marked you?
There were four feminicides in 2022, but the one that marked me a lot was a feminicide at the end of 2021. It was November 26, in Epinay-sur-Seine. It was not the first time that this woman [Bouchra] was a victim. Her ex-husband had been placed in custody for the first time, and he had been sentenced to a firm sentence and a suspended sentence. The victim had been given a grave danger phone [un téléphone équipé d’une touche qui alerte immédiatement un service d’assistance], and at the end of his firm sentence, the man was re-arrested near the home of his ex-companion. His reprieve was therefore revoked, he returned to prison and the victim thought he would be released in December. But he was released in November and while we had information on the date of his release, we were unable to notify the victim. And on the day of the author’s release, she had left her phone in serious danger at home. The drama is above all for the family, but for us too it was a shock, especially since until now we had handled this case well. Since then we have strengthened the organization.
What measures did you take following this feminicide?
Each drama allows us to see what could have happened otherwise. We have reorganized the way in which we notify the victim of the release of a perpetrator of domestic violence. Now this information arrives on a dedicated mailbox so that it can be read regardless of the configuration.
Seine-Saint-Denis is one of the departments most affected by domestic violence. Why ?
There are many offenses committed in Seine-Saint-Denis, a very high concentration of population and in difficult situations, therefore greater violence, and this is also the case in terms of intra-family violence. And second reason, Seine-Saint-Denis is 130 different nationalities and 177 languages. However, depending on culture and geographical origin, there are very different assessments of the status of women and of the relationship between women and men. Another reason, I think, is that a lot of work is being done on the territory to reveal these facts: it is in Seine-Saint-Denis that the first departmental Observatory of domestic violence was created, for example. This prompted the victims to file a complaint.
There has been an 84% increase in complaints in the department between 2017 and 2021. Is this because there are more victims, or is it because victims file more complaints?
I think it’s because the victims complain more. The justice figures are very impressive in this regard. The Ministry of Justice released some figures, at the national level between 2017 and 2021, there is a 97% increase in convictions for violence committed by a spouse. And [au tribunal de] Bobigny is a 100% increase.
We went from 577 convictions per year to 1,153 convictions per year. And I think the 2022 numbers are going to be even bigger.
And the number of years of firm imprisonment pronounced at the national level still between 2017 and 2021 has increased by 112%, and [au tribunal de] Bobigny by 187%. We have gone from 86 years of cumulative imprisonment pronounced to 247 years. In the priorities that we set with the police, it was to deal with domestic violence as a priority.
Is there more domestic violence at Christmas and during the holidays?
This is not a concept that seems obvious to me. We expected with confinement an explosion of domestic violence, there was an increase, but no explosion.
You have reorganized the Dijon prosecutor’s office to allow the creation of a “domestic violence unit”. Are you going to do the same in Bobigny?
There have already been reorganizations, we have had an increase in the number of contract workers, and in particular a category A contract worker, a high-level lawyer, recruited in 2020 and who is entirely dedicated to the coordination of domestic violence. It intervenes for example in monitoring the dedicated e-mail address and in the allocation of the means of protection. We worked a lot with her and with the domestic violence division on the organization of the processing of information for the release of the perpetrators and for the allocation of means of protection. With the additional resources for local justice, in 2020 we created an additional monthly correctional hearing at the Saint-Denis local court, a hearing entirely dedicated since the beginning of 2022 to cases of domestic violence. It was dedicated to allow for short dates so that, in the event of dismissal, the hearing does not take place a year later.
But we want to go further: this is why I asked for the creation of a special domestic violence center in the summer of 2022. In terms of additional resources, three judges, three prosecutors, three assistants and five additional clerks have been requested. With the idea of creating a specific permanence within the parquet floor. Currently cases are handled in the flow of other cases, and some days it is half of the cases. I would like to create a specific service clearly identified by the police officers and the association partners who send us alerts. The difficulty is that it is necessary to carry out an evaluation of the dangerousness, of the situation presented and of the author of the facts. These cases would be handled by magistrates who would only do that for a full week, without them doing that all year because they do not want it, because it is quite anxiety-provoking. In addition, we have many judges who have to deal with domestic violence: the family affairs judge, the juvenile judge, the sentence enforcement judge… With three assistants, this would make it possible to collect information and circulate it for that each of these services is well informed before making a decision. Such a center would also make it possible to consolidate protection measures for victims and finally to increase the number of hearings, to judge more quickly and more cases.