In France, the number of sexual assaults on public transport has nearly doubled in less than a decade.

A study by France’s National Observatory on Violence Against Women has revealed that in 2024, police recorded 3,374 victims of sexual violence committed on public transport in France. This figure represents a 6 per cent increase from 2023 and a 9 per cent rise from 2022.

Since 2016, the number of victims has increased by 86 per cent.

According to the study, 44 per cent of victims were recorded in the Ile-de-France region around Paris. Women remain the primary targets of attackers: figures from the interior ministry’s Statistical Service for Internal Security (SSMSI), cited by the observatory, show that they account for 91 per cent of victims. Two-thirds (75 per cent) of female victims are under the age of 30, while 36 per cent are minors.

The nature of the violence suffered varies:

39 per cent of victims were subjected to sexist and sexual insults, while 19 per cent experienced sexual harassment. A further 15 per cent reported being victims of sexual assault, and 6 per cent of rape.

Thirteen per cent of harassed women encountered indecent exposure.

Manon Marguerit, an urban planning researcher at Gustave Eiffel University, told the French newspaper Le Parisien that the characteristics of public transport – its confined spaces, crowded conditions, and the impossibility of escape – lead most people to associate sexual harassment with acts such as indecent exposure and groping.

However, „staring, as well as sexist or sexual insults – which are too often dismissed as trivial – can also cause severe trauma for the victim,”

– the researcher highlighted.

In Paris and the Ile-de-France region, a survey conducted by the RATP transport company found that 7 in 10 women have been victims of this type of violence at some point in their lives. More than half of the women surveyed (56 per cent) stated that they did not feel safe in areas of the Ile-de-France rail network, while 80 per cent said they were constantly on alert. According to the ENOV study, however, only 7 per cent of victims reported incidents to the police or gendarmerie.

The data also revealed a shift in bystander responses over the past decade, with more people now intervening. Twenty-three per cent of victims reported receiving help from a third party, compared with just 10 per cent in 2016.