Crime and the justice system are major topics of public debate. Long limited to a combination of monitoring of judicial activity (crimes and offences) by security services and monitoring of the judicial decisions, since 2007, analyses have been enriched with data from annual victimisation surveys that provide insights into the views of victims and the public. Not all victims file complaints; only 1 in 10 survivors of domestic physical or sexual violence report the crime, compared to 9 in 10 victims of car theft.

Efforts made in recent years to modernise statistical mechanisms (the last 5 years for the police and gendarmerie and 10 years for the justice system) have fostered greater understanding of the changes seen in terms of crime and prosecution. In 2019, for example, half of reports of intentional assault and battery of people aged 15 and over were reported as domestic violence. Movements to encourage people to speak out and the distribution of guidelines to the security services aiming to increase the number of complaints filed and improve support for victims of domestic violence have played a significant role in changing the number of cases of assault and battery reported. In terms of justice, increased use of fast-track procedures helped to speed up the overall time frames within the justice system between 2012 and 2019. But there is still room for improvement in analysing how crime is prosecuted, with no consistent link between the offences recorded by security forces and the decisions handed down by the courts.

Similarly, the accurate identification of victim populations, monitoring of the paths followed by perpetrators and the determination of places more likely to host certain types of crime (such as public transport or tourist areas) can allow preventive measures and security policies to be adapted. Other issues are also cause for concern, such as the position of France in terms of security compared to its European partners, and regional differences regarding crime. Finally, relations between the public and those responsible for preventing and controlling crime are likely to have an impact on the number of complaints filed and feelings of insecurity.

Investment aimed at activities such as evaluating all acts of crime brought to the attention of the security services (logs, reports, interventions etc.), developing longitudinal approaches (including panels) and further combining the data held by the Ministry of the Interior and the Ministry of Justice, via statistical matching, are intended to continue.

It is in this context of modernising the statistical systems that this first issue of INSEE Références focuses on security in society.