The feminist collective #Noustoutes published new figures on sexist and sexual violence committed by the police

Between June 24 and October 8, #Noustoutes said they received 207 responses to a short questionnaire. Among the entries, 60% of testimonies reported sexual violence, sexual harassment, sexual exhibition, or rape.

Activists are calling for a “global awareness”. The feminist collective #Noustoutes published a report on sexist and sexual violence committed by police or police officers on Saturday 15 November. Between June 24 and October 8, the collective said they received 207 responses to five short questions. Among these returns, 60% of testimonies reported sexual violence, sexual harassment, sexual exhibition or rape where the perpetrator was a law enforcement officer.

The majority of people who responded gave testimony as victims of this violence (78.6%), 9.7% as relatives of victims and 11.7% as witnesses, according to a survey conducted in collaboration with investigative media Disclose, published in Release and AFP has a copy.

In approximately nine out of ten testimonies, the perpetrator was male, and the majority of perpetrators (48.9%) worked in the national police. Eighteen percent were members of the gendarmerie and 15% were members of the municipal police. In about one in five cases, the victim does not know this information or does not want to reveal it, says #Noustoutes.

Still, according to this survey, 42% of acts of violence occurred when the victim came to ask for help from the police or gendarmerie (35% if the filing of a complaint or complaint related to an act of violence and 11% if it involved other acts).

The #Noustoutes collective determined that it was a “militant investigation” who doesn’t have one “goal of producing a representative sample”but attempts to provide additional data “to better understand and combat the systemic phenomenon of police violence”.

In June, Disclose, in collaboration with France 2’s “L’Œil du 20 Heures,” and Release has published two separate investigations into sexual violence in the police force. These substantiated articles report that more than 400 people, the majority of whom are women, have stated that they have been harassed, assaulted or raped by police officers over the past twelve years.

The police and gendarmerie management assured the AFP, at the time, that they would act as soon as the case was proven, reporting 18 cases of sexual violence recorded since 2012 on the part of the police, and 223 disciplinary sanctions imposed during the last three years on the part of the gendarmerie.