RAPE CULTURE
The number of victims of sexual violence on public transport recorded by law enforcement has increased by 86 percent in almost ten years, according to a report by the National Observatory on Violence against Women published on Monday.
People using the metro in Paris AFP - GEOFFROY VAN DER HASSELT
By:RFI
Issued on: 10/03/2025 -
Mandated by the government – the Observatory group known as Miprof – collated the results of several studies carried out over the last ten years.
They highlight an alarming increase in the number of cases of sexist and sexual violence occuring on trains, metros and other modes of public transport across France.
The number of victims rose to 3,374 in 2024, 6 percent more than in 2023, and 9 percent more than in 2022, the government panel found.
Among them, 44 percent were victims in the Île-de-France region, which includes Paris and its suburbs.
Women remain the main targets representing 91 percent of victims, with two thirds of them under 30, and 36 percent are minors.
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"Although most violence against women is committed by members of their close circle, the fact remains that public spaces, and particularly public transport networks, remain places where women are exposed to sexist and sexual violence as soon as they enter them," Miprof Secretary General Roxana Maracineanu said.
Miprof included figures from a June 2022 survey conducted by the Enov Institute for the RATP transport network, which found that seven out of 10 women have already been victims of this type of violence in Île-de-France transport during their life.
That figure that rises to 90 percent for women aged 19 to 25, the survey found.
The nature of the violence suffered ranges vastly; from sexist and sexual insults to sexual harassment and indecent exposure.
15 percent reported having been victims of sexual assault and 6 percent of rape or attempted rape.
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More than half of the women surveyed said they do not feel reassured in the spaces of the Île-de-France rail network and 80 percent admit to remaining on alert.
This fear of being attacked has lead to women changing their behaviour to adapt to certain situations: 68 percent said they dress differently on public transport, 83 percent place their backs to doors or walls when travelling standing up, and 93 percent try to sit next to a woman, a couple or a family rather than a single man.
Only 7 percent of victims recorded by the Enov study filed a complaint with a gendarmerie or the police.
According to figures from the Ministry of the Interior, of all victims of sexual violence recorded in 2024, 3 percent were on public transport, a proportion that has remained stable since 2016, according to the National Observatory.
Changing behaviour
Manon Marguerit, urban planning researcher at the Gustave-Eiffel University, who was quoted in the report says different forms of sexual violence can stem from the fact that people find themselves in crowded confined spaces.
"The aggressors we always think of are exhibitionists and 'frotteurs' who rub up against people. It is true that the characteristics linked to the transport space – confinement, saturation of bodies, impossibility of escaping from the vehicle – can generate these forms of specific sexual violence", she notes.
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However, the researcher also mentions other forms of violence such as "stares - whether insistent, intrusive, threatening, voyeuristic - sexist insults, touching. Too often considered trivial, they can cause trauma to the person who suffers them", she emphasises.
In the space of ten years, the study found that the reaction of witnesses has evolved with 23 percent of victims say they were helped by a third party, compared to 10 percent in 2016.
Given the scale of the phenomenon, some operators have implemented measures to improve the safety of women on their network, such as on-demand drop-offs on buses.
The measures deployed - such as assistance numbers (3117 and 31177) and call points on platforms - are known to the majority of users of the Paris region network but remain little used - only 12 percent say they have ever used them.
(with AFP)
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