Provence – A Violent Region?

If one were to believe the political and media profiles, the Provence region harbours exceptional problems of violence. This article puts this assumption to the test in relation to statistical verification. After examining the available police figures, the authors use general population surveys to compare the Provence region to the rest of France and the Francilian region. The results are varied : the three areas – the region of Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur (PACA), the region of Île-de-France (IDF) and metropolitan France – have different victimisation statistics. But in each case, victimisation which resembles most closely the image of « violence », i.e. against physical integrity (physical assaults, thefts with violence) does not figure most prominently in the PACA region. These statistics allow us also to measure the weight which can be given to various structural factors, such as urban density and socio-economic deprivation. Given these results, the authors conclude by critiquing the cultural and sociological approaches.