Crime in France – 2008 Report of the National Crime Observatory – Summary
The summary of the annual report of the Observatoire national de la délinquance (OND - National Crime Observatory) presents the results of the crime assessment systems in France.
Description
This summary of the 2008 annual report of the OND starts
with a foreword by Mr Pierre Monzani, director of the Institut
national des hautes études de sécurité (INHES - National Institute
for Advanced Security Studies) and an introduction by Mr Alain
Bauer, president of the OND council, who outline the context of the
reinforcement of security assessment systems in France.
The body of the summary presents the principal results of
the report relating to 2006, 2007 and 2008: victimisation, the
victims of physical violence in the “living environment and
security” surveys, the offences registered by police services and
gendarmerie units, the persons suspected of offences, infringements
of labour laws, metal theft, freight theft, environmental damage,
the reporting of users to the police, fines, criminal trends dealt
with by customs, fiscal offences, offences in Paris, spousal
violence.
The summary subsequently presents the summary of the full
report. It also provides methodology elements.
Finally, before presenting the OND staff who helped write
the report, the summary concludes with the 2008 recommendations of
the OND’s guidance committee.
Background information
The OND was created in 2003 to improve crime assessment in
France.
In 2003, the OND asked the Institut National de la
Statistique et des Etudes Economiques (INSEE - National Institute
for Statistics and Economic Studies) to propose the implementation
of an annual victimisation survey system designed to complete the
statistics from administrative sources. These surveys complete the
information on known facts by the testimonies of the victims on
what they experienced. The first major survey was carried out in
2007.
This report presents the evolution of victimisation
statistics after the two annual surveys of 2007 and 2008.
Methodology
In order to measure crime trends, the OND uses
administrative statistics on the facts observed by police services
and gendarmerie units. They are completed by information from other
sources, notably the results of direct victim surveys, referred to
as “victimisation surveys”, which provide unique data on
unreported offences and victim characteristics (gender, age,
profession, income, place of residence, marital status etc.)
Conclusions
The OND’s mission is to “communicate the conclusions
of its analyses to the ministers interested and (its) partners”.
Within this context, and for the purposes of improving public
policy processes, the OND advocates the implementation of several
actions which would help improve the knowledge and comprehension of
crime and delinquency evolutions, of the profile of offenders and
their victims.
Therefore, the OND recommends:
- improving knowledge of the facts,
victims and offenders in cases of homicides and attempted
homicides,
- improving comprehension of
homicides, attempted homicides and gang warfare associated with the
regulation of the drugs market,
- the spatial and temporal analysis of
the facts observed in Paris and Marseille where the offence was
committed
- evaluating the increase in violence
committed with a knife
- creating a working group designed to
improve the definition of so-called “urban” violence
Contact info
National Crime Observatory
(OND)
Phone: +33 1 55 84 53 00
communication.inhes@interieur.gouv.fr
Publication date
//2008
Project finished
//
Researcher
National Crime Observatory
(OND), under the authority of Mr Alain Bauer
Article info
ISBN: 978-2-271-06762-3
Document
type
research