Eric Mathais is a prosecutor in Bobigny, which is usually referred to as “the first court in France after Paris”. A demanding court for its officials and staffin the most criminogenic department e the poorest in France metropolitan area, where 30% of families live below the poverty line. A court even where cases of domestic violence are numerous, Seine-Saint-Denis winning the dubious primacy of the metropolitan department where the number of wives of the victims of Domestic violence it was the highest in 2021, according to the latest data from the interior ministry’s statistics service.
Eric Mathais, what is it, Prosecutor of Seine-Saint-Denis? Can you describe your daily work?
The Seine-Saint-Denis has very specific sociological, economic and demographic characteristics. For example, here is a figure: officially the population is 1,670 million people, but in reality it is estimated that there are between 1.8 and 2 million inhabitants. There are therefore 200,000, 300,000 or 400,000 people not officially resident in Seine-Saint-Denis, foreigners in an irregular situation. This weighs on the justice figures but also all public services, because these are calculated on the official situation. It is also the most criminal department in metropolitan France with endemic violence. We work under very high pressure and everyone knows it. So, with the exception of one hearing a month, I almost no longer deal with jurisdictional matters, I only deal with organization, coordination and I try to ensure that the penal policy is as harmonious as possible.
Can you tell us about the latest feminicides in Seine-Saint-Denis? Is there a femicide that marked you?
There have been four feminicides in 2022, but what really struck me was a feminicide at the end of 2021. It was November 26, in Epinay-sur-Seine. It was not the first time this woman [Bouchra] he was a victim. Her ex-husband had been placed in pre-trial detention for the first time and given a final sentence and a suspended sentence. The victim was given a phone of grave danger [un téléphone équipé d’une touche qui alerte immédiatement un service d’assistance], and at the end of his firm sentence, the man was arrested again near the home of his ex-partner. His suspension was then lifted, he returned to prison and the victim thought he would be released in December. But he was released in November and although we had information on his release date, we were unable to notify the victim. And on the day of the author’s release, she had left her cell phone at home in grave danger. The drama is mostly for the family, but it was a shock for us too, especially since we had handled this case well up until now. We have since strengthened the organization.
What measures did you take following this feminicide?
Each drama allows us to see what might have happened otherwise. We’ve rearranged the way we notify the victim of a perpetrator’s release Domestic violence. Now this information arrives on a dedicated mailbox so that it can be read regardless of the configuration.
Seine-Saint-Denis is one of the departments most affected by domestic violence. Why ?
There are many crimes committed in Seine-Saint-Denis, a very high concentration of population and in a difficult situation, therefore greater violence, and this is also true in terms of of intra-family violence. And second reason, Seine-Saint-Denis is of 130 different nationalities and 177 languages. However, depending on the culture and geographical origin, there are very different assessments of the status of women and the relationship between women and men. Another reason, I believe, is that important work is being done in the area to reveal these facts: it was in Seine-Saint-Denis that the first Departmental Observatory on Domestic Violence, for example. This prompted victims to file charges.
There was an 84% increase in complaints in the department between 2017 and 2021. Is it because there are more victims or because victims file more complaints?
I think it’s because victims complain more. The justice figures are very impressive in this respect. The Ministry of Justice has released some data, nationally between 2017 and 2021 there is a 97% increase in convictions for violence committed by the spouse. AND [au tribunal de] Bobigny is a 100% increase.
We went from 577 convictions a year to 1,153 convictions a year. And I think the 2022 numbers will be even bigger.
And the number of years of firm confinement still pronounced nationwide between 2017 and 2021 increased by 112%, and [au tribunal de] Bobigny by 187%. We have gone from 86 years of pronounced cumulative imprisonment to 247 years. Among the priorities we established with the police was to address domestic violence as a priority.
Is there more domestic violence at Christmas and during the holidays?
This is not a concept that seems obvious to me. We expected an explosion of domestic violence with the confinement, there was an increase, but no explosion.
You have reorganized the Dijon prosecutor’s office to allow for the creation of a “domestic violence unit”. Will you do the same in Bobigny?
There have already been reorganisations, we have had an increase in the number of contractors, and in particular of a category A collaborator, a high-level lawyer, hired in 2020 and who is entirely dedicated to the coordination of domestic violence. He intervenes, for example, in monitoring the dedicated e-mail address and in assigning means of protection. We worked a lot with her and with the Domestic Violence Division on organizing the processing of information for the release of offenders and for the assignment of means of protection. With the additional resources for local justice, in 2020 we created an additional monthly correctional hearing at the local court of Saint-Denis, a hearing entirely dedicated since the beginning of 2022 to domestic violence cases. It was dedicated to allowing for short dates so that if you’re fired, your hearing doesn’t take place a year later.
But we want to go further: that’s why I called for the creation of a special center for domestic violence in the summer of 2022. In terms of additional resources, three judges, three prosecutors, three assistants and five additional clerks were requested. With the idea of creating a specific permanence within the parquet. Cases are currently being handled in the stream of other cases, and some days it’s half the cases. I would like to create a specific service clearly identified by police officers and association partners who report to us. The difficulty is that it is necessary to carry out an assessment of the danger, of the situation presented and of the perpetrator. These cases would be handled by magistrates who would only do it for a whole week, without them doing it all year because they don’t want to, because it’s quite anxiety provoking. In addition, we have many judges dealing with domestic violence: the family affairs judge, the juvenile judge, the sentence enforcement judge… With three assistants, this would allow information to be gathered and circular for each of these services are well informed before making a decision. Such a center would also make it possible to consolidate protection measures for victims and ultimately to increase the number of hearings, to judge more cases faster and more.
