Personal Violence in France since the Mid'80s

International audienceEstimating the trend in a type of crime requires the comparison of data from several sources. In the case of non-lethal violence, victimisation surveys are at hand, in which a representative sample of respondents are questioned about offences to which they were victims during a given period. The results may be compared with the data contained in statistics for police and gendarmerie activity. Because of the variety of types of violence possibly experienced by survey participants, these will be divided into three categories, analysed in the following order : - serious physical violence entailing working incapacity of at least eight days, - other physical violence (less serious injury, blows, and so on), - " other " violence (such as rackets, non-violent snatching, threats, insults, and so on)