More crime in France than in US – report
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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.