Controversial Legal Decisions and Rising Violence Highlight France’s Struggle with Violent Crime

France is grappling with the legal and social ramifications of recent violent crime cases as judicial rulings on criminal responsibility and alarming trends in partner-related homicides stir public debate. In the Seine-et-Marne assize court’s recent decision, Ousmane Diallo, 62, was declared criminally irresponsible for the fatal stabbing of 18-year-old Théo Muxagata over a 93.62-euro telecom dispute in July 2021. Psychiatric experts diagnosed Diallo with delusional paranoid psychosis, leading the court to order his hospitalization in a psychiatric unit – a verdict met with deep sadness and anger by Théo’s mother, who called the ruling "impossible to accept." Meanwhile, another serious case in Seine-et-Marne saw a 41-year-old Malian man charged with the murder and arson following the February 2024 discovery of a mutilated woman’s body in Esbly. The victim, a 33-year-old mother of two, was killed by a former partner, underscoring a disturbing rise in femicide cases in France – with 107 women killed by partners or ex-partners in 2024, up from 96 in 2023, according to the Mission interministérielle pour la protection des femmes (Miprof). The suspect acknowledged inflicting fatal blows but denied intending to kill. These cases expose challenges in addressing violent crimes legally and socially, reflecting increasing public concern about violence within relationships and judicial handling of mentally ill offenders.