No, French crime statistics don't show majority of rapes are committed by foreign nationals

Context

An X (formerly known as Twitter) post published on July 2, 2024 (archived here) claims that women across Western countries are facing higher rates of sexual violence as more migrants arrive. The post includes a video of women speaking about the sexual harassment they have faced from Arab and other non-European immigrant men. The video contains a watermark from Collectif Nemesis, a right-wing feminist French organization. 

The X post has a lengthy caption, including the claim, "Recent reports published by the government show 60 percent of rapes in France are done by non-French men." 

Tensions have been mounting in France over immigration, resulting in the far-right anti-immigration party National Rally winning the first round of the country's snap election held on July 1. Sexual violence in the country has been thrust back into the spotlight after a 12-year-old Jewish girl was allegedly raped in a suspected antisemitic attack in late June. Claims of migrants committing the majority of sexual crimes in European countries are not new, and Logically Facts has previously debunked a claim that Sweden is the "rape capital" of Europe because of immigration. 

But official statistics don't support claims that the majority of rapes in the country are committed by migrants. Recent crime statistics show that the majority of alleged rapes in the country are committed by French men. 

87 percent of alleged assailants in 2022/2023 were French nationals 

On March 7, 2024, the French Interior Ministry published a report on the number of cases of sexual violence committed outside the family that were recorded by security services in 2022/2023. 

The data shows that throughout the entire country, 16,672 people were accused of rape in 2023. Of these people, 87 percent were French nationals.

A table showing the number of people accused of sexual crimes in France in the 2022/2023 period broken down by type of crime on the y-axis and the percentage that were repeat offenders, men, French nationals, and minors on the x-axis. 'Viol' is the French term for rape. (Source: French Interior Ministry/Screenshot)

Estimates found only 6 percent of rapes are reported 

It is important to remember that these statistics are based on reported rapes. Rape is chronically underreported often because of factors such as stigma and secondhand victimization that victims face when reporting to the authorities. 

The Ministerial Statistical Service for Internal Security conducted a study in 2022 which found that in a given year, an estimated 217,000 women between the ages of 18 and 74 are victims of rape, attempted rape, and/or sexual assault. In 49 percent of these cases, the perpetrator was known to the victim, and in 21 percent of cases, the perpetrator was the victim's former or current spouse. Only an estimated 6 percent of victims reported their assault to the authorities. 

Élise Sélimovic-Lartillier is an activist at the French feminist organization #NousToutes. She told Logically Facts that victims are often reluctant to report rapes perpetrated by close friends and family members in particular. 

"You have a lot of pressure on you, like, 'I will destroy the family,' 'I will lose my friend.' It's very difficult," she explained. 

She added that in recent years there has been more right-wing political rhetoric that has focused on rapes perpetrated by foreign nationals, even though the majority of rapes are perpetrated by French nationals. 

The verdict 

Claims that foreign nationals perpetrate the majority of rapes in France have been circulated on both social media and traditional media sources. But these claims are inaccurate. Police statistics for 2022/2023 show that 87 percent of alleged assailants were French nationals. Rape is also chronically underreported, and victims are particularly reluctant to report rapes perpetrated by close friends and family members. We have, therefore, rated this claim as false. 

(Update: This fact-check was updated on July 12, 2024, to correctly identify that 87 percent of alleged assailants were French nationals, rather than 86 percent as we previously stated.)