Data on prosecuted and sentenced cases were collected by the French Ministerial Statistical Department for Justice (SDSE) from the Cassiopée statistical file. Sentences for serious crimes (such as homicides and rapes) are not recorded in Cassiopée, and are therefore not presented here.
The 2022 data covers Metropolitan France and Overseas, except for communities located overseas (COM).
The police provide data disaggregated by racism and xenophobia, including anti-religious hate crime, and by bias on the grounds of sex/gender, including hate crimes committed with bias based on sexual orientation and gender identity. Data under these categories were collected by the French Ministerial Statistical Department for Internal Security (SSMSI).
The newly introduced Law no. 2022-92 of 31 January 2022 prohibiting practices aimed at modifying sexual orientation or gender identity created a new offence independently punishing practices known as "conversion therapies". Article 225-4-13 of the Criminal Code provides for a penalty of two years' imprisonment and a fine of €30,000. These new provisions make it a criminal offence to provide consultations or prescribe treatments claiming to be able to modify or repress a person's actual or assumed sexual orientation or gender identity.
As part of the French Presidency of the Council of the European Union, on 7 April 2022, France led a joint European day of action to address hate crimes. This continued from the initiative launched in 2020 by Germany. Eleven countries took part in the day of action in 2022, during which 170 individuals were arrested in more than 468 operations.
As part of the decentralized and regular education of judges and prosecutors, two draft agreements were signed in the Paris and Versailles jurisdictions in 2022. The first was an initial agreement between the National School for magistrates (ENM – École nationale de la magistrature), DILCRAH and the Museum of Jewish Art and History. The second agreement was reached between the ENM, DILCRAH and the Shoah Memorial.
In 2022, a study was carried out on the links between online and offline anti-Semitism by a university research institute at the request of the OCLCH.
As reported in the national press, on 12 December 2022, the Paris Criminal Court convicted a number of people of online harassment on the grounds of the victim's sexual orientation and of threatening to commit an offence against a person. The sentences ranged from 3 to 6 months' suspended imprisonment.
This category includes cases of bias based on sexual orientation and gender identity. The category "Damage to property" includes robberies, thefts, burglaries, and arson. The category "Unspecify" may include cases of identity theft, disruption of public safety, disrespect of authority, or sexual exhibitionism, some of which may fall outside of the OSCE's definition of hate crime.
This category includes crimes committed based on an actual or perceived membership in a religion, and also includes incidents with the following biases: anti-Semitic, anti-Muslim, and anti-Christian.
ODIHR recognizes France's efforts to address hate crimes in a comprehensive manner, and improve its hate crime data collection. However, based on available information, it observes that France's hate crime recording and statistics do not sufficiently distinguish hate crimes from other crimes. In addition, ODIHR observes that France would benefit from enhancing its efforts to build the capacity of prosecutors and judges to prosecute and sentence hate crimes.
ODIHR recalls that in Ministerial Council Decision 9/09, OSCE participating States committed to collect reliable data and statistics on hate crimes in sufficient detail, and to report such data periodically to ODIHR. Participating States also committed to introduce or further develop professional training and capacity-building activities for law enforcement, prosecution, and judicial officials dealing with hate crimes. ODIHR stands ready to support France in meeting its relevant commitments through the provision of comprehensive resources and tailored assistance in the area of hate crime recording and data collection, as well as by providing further resources and tailored capacity-building assistance for police, prosecution, and judiciary.
In addition to incidents submitted with detailed descriptions, this graph includes 14 anti-Muslim incidents reported as statistics by CAP Freedom of Conscience.
🛈 Please note that the total number of incidents may be lower than the sum of incidents presented in the breakdown chart above, as some incidents involve multiple bias motivations.
🛈 ODIHR no longer presents descriptions of property attacks in the incident tables below. Data on property attacks are presented in the breakdown charts above. One property attack may target multiple properties or involve multiple types of attack.