The demonstration of #NousToutes on Saturday showed that the issue of violence against women remains a significant subject four years after being declared a “great cause of the five-year term” by Emmanuel Macron. Domestic violence, which increased in 2020, is one of the work areas of the government, in particular Marlène Schiappa, Minister for Citizenship. In the company of Gérald Darmanin, Minister of the Interior, Marlène Schiappa announced last October, the forthcoming experimentation of mobile brigades which could collect complaints from victims of domestic and intra-family violence in third-party places, “a complaint from others “.
This Tuesday, the Minister Delegate goes to a police station in the 13th arrondissement of Paris to launch this life-size test. In Île-de-France, the 13th and 14th arrondissements and the city of Saint-Denis have been selected to participate. Exclusively for 20 minutes, Marlène Schiappa details this device.
What does this new “complaint among others” device consist of?
We started from the principle that many women do not dare to go to the police station or the gendarmerie to file a complaint for domestic, gender or sexual violence. For fear of being badly received, of being seen or recognized. In addition to the platform arretonslesviolences.gouv.fr, and the SMS service to 114, which allow women who cannot call the police, to report violence of which they are victims, we wanted to go further with the Minister of the Interior and allow them to file a complaint without asking go to a police station. Hence this mechanism of complaint among others that we call “Outside the walls”. It will give victims the opportunity to file a complaint from any location.
Whether it is at a friend’s house, in a town hall, in the premises of an association, in the office of a lawyer, it will be possible to have a police officer or a gendarme who travels to come and collect the complaint.
This allows gender-based and sexual violence to be brought to justice by responding to the obstacles that stand between the victim and the complaint. We are launching this test for a period of six months in the 13th and 14th arrondissements of Paris and in the city of Saint-Denis. The departments of Vaucluse, Pas-de-Calais, Sarthe, Morbihan, Haute-Corse will also be included in the system.
Why did you choose these two arrondissements of Paris and Saint-Denis in the Paris region?
We did so in consultation with the préfet. We wanted, with Gérald Darmanin, places where there is a significant number of complaints. These are also places where the police stations are at the forefront on these subjects, with referents, social workers who can accompany the victims, and enough agents who can travel for that. We also wanted a strong network of associations. This is the case, for example, in Saint-Denis, which has many historical associations very committed to the defense of women. The 13th and 14th arrondissements of Paris also have several associative third places where it will be possible to file a complaint.
We also wanted the police to be able themselves to offer victims who want to lodge a complaint places where the two parties can meet as it exists with the women’s house of Pitié-Salpêtrière in the 13th district or the women’s house of Saint- Denis. About fifty agreements with the hospital sector have already been signed for women who would like to report violence or rape. They can be examined and treated there, while keeping the evidence and calling a police officer who can come and see and take the complaint.
The various collectives and associations denounce the difficulties in filing a complaint regarding the reception received in certain police stations and certain gendarmeries and speak of double punishment. How can the “Hors les Murs” complaint change that?
We have operated a revolution in the training of law enforcement agencies. It is a long-standing observation that the reactions are not up to par. There have been reports of police asking a raped woman if she had enjoyed or if she had smiled. It is unacceptable. In the training, the agents learn not to ask these questions and especially to find the right attitude towards these women. For example, a victim of sexual violence is attached to not being touched. It seems simple, but I could see by attending these trainings that it is not necessarily obvious. We learn to invite the person to sit down without rushing him, without giving orders, with appropriate gestures. You have to think about offering a glass of water, offering to continue the conversation or stop it if necessary. It may seem like details, but it allows the victim to feel that she is being considered and listened to.
A danger assessment grid has been created with dozens of questions to systematically ask a woman victim of sexual and gender-based violence to ensure that the complaint is well qualified. This helps to “judicialize” these complaints more easily and it makes it easier for the victims to speak out, who do not think or dare to mention certain facts such as marital rape, or psychological or even administrative violence.
Also, all the agents required to travel in the “Outside the walls” system are obviously trained. We are working on it. All those who have been out of school for three years have benefited from up to 120 hours of training, as is the case at the Chaumont school for example. And nearly 100,000 police officers have benefited from equivalent continuing training. In view of the 290,000 police and gendarmes in France, we hope to obtain 100% of the workforce by 2023.
Too often so far, it has been a “chance” to be well received for this type of complaint. It should no longer be one, it should be systematic.
The other criticism made in the case of complaints for domestic violence is the many complaints that remain in the drawer. Many victims of femicide had already lodged a complaint, how to deal with that?
We are aware that some complaints are not forwarded. This was the case with Julie Douib, killed in L’Ile-Rousse by her husband. She, her father and her brother had already filed a complaint seven times, and none of these complaints has ever been forwarded to the prosecution. We no longer want “complaints for nothing”. We have passed, with the Minister of the Interior, a circular to remind the agents that the refusal of complaints is illegal under the Penal Code, even if it still happens. We also demanded the end of the handrails and the systematic taking of complaints and their transmission to the prosecution in cases of rape, violence and harassment.
To supervise these systems, we have set up referents. In each police station, a referent is responsible for ensuring that complaints are taken into account and followed up. But Gérald Darmanin wanted to go further by also creating a post of referent with the general direction of the police and one with the general direction of the gendarmerie, and also one with the prefecture of police. We must also meet them this week to take stock after a month and a half.
Finally, I would like to point out that 400 police officers and gendarmes intervene every week to protect women victims of domestic violence. We improve what was dysfunctional, we must also pay tribute to the police officers and gendarmes mobilized every day in the face of intra-family violence: it is their daily life to protect women against executioners.