Crime and Justice in France
| Published date | 01 January 2004 |
| Author | Jacques de Maillard,Sebastian Roché |
| Date | 01 January 2004 |
| DOI | 10.1177/1477370804038709 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
Crime and Justice in France
Time Trends, Policies and Political Debate
Jacques de Maillard
Research Fellow, Fondation Nationale des Sciences Politiques, Sciences
Po, University of Grenoble, France
Sebastian Roch´e
Research Fellow, CNRS (National Science Research Centre), Sciences Po,
University of Grenoble, France
ABSTRACT
Crime and insecurity have been major political issues in France during the past
20 years, and especially during the presidential election campaign of 2002. This
survey focuses on empirically-based social science that is relevant to these issues.
Key themes are crime trends and the influence of incivilities and of fear of crime.
The political debate about crime and crime reduction since the 1970s is
described and analysed. The paper describes and critically assesses the various
measures of the crime phenomenon (vital statistics, victim surveys, self-report
studies) and summarizes the information provided by these measures at various
times. The various societal responses to crime and insecurity are reviewed,
including police work (and police reform), incarceration trends, social preven-
tion and the new partnerships at a local level. Moves to decentralize policy and
practice in the field of control and prevention of crime are discussed. Finally, key
publications, centres of criminological research and sources of funding are
reviewed.
KEY WORDS
Fear of Crime / Incivilities / Victim Survey / Prison / Police / Justice / Private
Security / Security / Local Government / State / Partnership / Juvenile Crime /
Crime Trends / Self-Reported Delinquency / Prevention / Urban Renewal.
Volume 1 (1): 111–151: 1477-3708
DOI: 10.1177/1477370804038709
Copyright © 2004 SAGE Publications
London, Thousand Oaks CA, and New Delhi
www.sagepublications.com
COUNTRY SURVEY
Introduction
The issues of crime, insecurity and safety – whichever term is used – have
aroused growing interest in France over the past 20 years. Juvenile
delinquency, urban riots, incivilities, the penal state, zero tolerance and
feelings of insecurity were some of the major themes of social and political
debate during the past decade. In electoral terms, the climax was reached in
the presidential campaign of January to April 2002, when the response to
delinquency and insecurity was the major focus of the political and media
agenda and also the top priority in public opinion polls. Although this has
not been demonstrated, it has been repeatedly stated in the mass media that
crime issues played a role in the defeat of Lionel Jospin. Being soft on crime
during the campaign (though not in actual policies – see below) may have
been one factor that contributed to the sharp decline in support for the
socialists among working-class voters, who were very sensitive on this
question (Perrineau 2003). Moreover, an important factor in the longer run
is the presence of an extreme right force in France since the mid-1980s. The
National Front, like its counterparts in other European countries, cam-
paigned on crime and immigration.
As might be expected, not everyone agrees on the nature and extent of
the problem or, consequently, on desirable solutions. Has there been a
growth of juvenile delinquency? Has there been an emergence of a ‘repres-
sive state’ or ‘punitive society’? Do incivilities break social ties and increase
the feeling of insecurity in the population? What role should ‘local govern-
ment’ play in policing urban areas? The main themes explored in this
survey are crime trends, fear of crime and incivilities, penal responses and
government reorganization in France. Another key topic is the emergence
of the banlieues as a political issue; these banlieues (literally ‘suburbs’) are
the deprived areas on the outskirts of large cities dominated by social
housing projects. They are crime-prone areas and sites of anti-police
behaviour – in sum, places where the public authorities see the state as
being challenged.
We shall devote a substantial part of this survey to the empirical
foundations that are an indispensable structuring feature of a criminology
that is not limited to law (as was the case in France before 1980). There are
currently many academic studies but they do not always reach high
methodological standards. Our aim is to indicate what measures of crime
and insecurity are now available, how the government and other bodies
respond and, to a lesser extent, what explanations are discussed (no major
empirical research has evaluated the alternative explanations). In the
French context, the question of which institutions (national or local) deal
with delinquency is crucial. Reform is under way and we have found much
112 European Journal of Criminology
ambivalence in the French system. There is clearly a rise of new actors, such
as municipalities, new rhetoric and procedures for action (such as ‘prox-
imity’ or ‘partnership’), but also a reluctance among law enforcement
professions and institutions to change.
We begin by outlining the major features of the French institutional
background as it affects criminal justice and by stressing the mix of
traditional centralization and recent decentralizing reforms. We also briefly
describe the state of French research related to criminology (although
criminology does not exist as a distinct academic discipline in France). We
then turn to major trends in crime and justice: we present and briefly
discuss the major sources of data and methods of research, and we analyse
the interpretations by academics or politicians. After reviewing key pub-
lications and major areas of research, we look at the public debate
concerning crime and insecurity in contemporary France.
Background
Administrative centralization and reform
The French system is known for its centralism. For example, there is no
concept of local government because the term ‘government’ is reserved for
the central level. Instead, one talks of ‘territorial communities’ (collectivit´es
territoriales). There are three levels of local government: municipalities,
departments and regions. Until the end of the 1970s, the department
(France is divided into 100 of these territorial and administrative units) and
the prefect (the head, nominated by central government, of the national
bureaucracies at the level of the department) constituted the main elements
of the French administrative system. The prefect is still in existence today,
but a new organizational form has surfaced since the 1982 Decentralization
Act: more financial resources and decision-making power have been trans-
ferred to elected representatives at the levels of regions, departments and
municipalities. The Territorial Administration Act (6 February 1992) in-
stituted the principle of subsidiarity between administrative units. In
addition, on 17 March 2003 the French Congress (that is the parliament
and the senate together assembled in Versailles) modified the Constitution
and proclaimed that the French Republic is decentralized.
Yet centralization still holds true as far as police recruitment and
organization are concerned. Municipal police forces were nationalized in
1941 and from that time almost all policemen and gendarmes became state
employees. In 2000, there were 135,000 policemen and 95,000 gendarmes.
Initially the gendarmerie (a military quasi police force, distinct from the
army) operated in the countryside and the national police force (a civil
de Maillard and Roch´e Crime and justice in France 113
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