More crime in France than in US - report
PARIS, June 18 (AFP) - France has become a more crime-ridden society than the
United States, according to a new report which draws on official statistics
from the FBI and French ministry of interior.
Examining figures for a range of offenses since 1995, the study found that
France overtook the US for the first time last year, as zero tolerance
policies in America coincided with the steady growth in crime in French
cities and suburbs.
Per 100,000 inhabitants, there were 4,244 crimes in France compared with
4,135 in the US. "It was bound to happen one day that the curves converge
then cross over," said security consultant Alain Bauer, the report's
co-author.
Sector by sector, Bauer discovered that while figures for murder and rape
remained much higher in the United States, in other types of violent crime
France was approaching or had surpassed American levels.
Thus the number of physical assaults in 2000 was put at 327 per 100,000
people by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and at 299 by the French
police. Five years before the numbers were more than 400 in the US, and just
over 200 in France.
For theft with violence, France was well in advance of the US, with 185
compared to 145.
The figures for crimes on property were even more stark, with the US
statistics declining dramatically over the past five years, while France
registered a steady increase.
For simple theft, France hit 2,588 per 100,000 inhabitants while the US fell
to 2,475. Car-theft was markedly more pronounced in France, with 507 reported
compared to 420 in the US for the same head of population.
The authors, who included in the report only those crimes they said were
directly comparable, warned that any study of this nature was "necessarily
relative and partical," but they insisted the overall picture was
unmistakeable.
"We can confirm, without serious risk of contradiction, that France has just
overtaken the USA in levels of criminality," Bauer told Le Figaro newspaper.
He called on the French government to follow the example of the American
authorities, who he said had succeeded in a spectacular reduction in crime --
notably in New York -- via a mix of strict enforcement and the "pragmatic"
application of local initiatives.
"What's essentially changed in criminality in France is the return of
physical violence," Bauer said. "There exists here a real sense of impunity
which makes the victims all the more dejected and the criminals all the more
determined.
"It is a terrifying spiral of violence that we have to break," he said.
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