Domestic violence

Physical Violence

The physical violence is characterized by the use of violent gestures in order to hurt you.

Several acts can be considered physical violence:

• Being slapped
• Receive punches, belt blows or other
• Be pulled by the hair or be pushed.

Sexual Violence

Sexual violence can take different forms such as:

• The rape
• Sexual assault
• The sexual harassment.

Psychological violence

The psychological abuse is behavior or a set of acts that are intended to belittle or denigrate you.

Several acts can be considered as psychological violence:

• Make demeaning or derogatory statements, in private or in public
• Insult the other member of couple
• Threatening your partner, cohabiting partner or Civil partnership partner.

Economic Violence

The economic violence is behavior that aims to deprive you of financial autonomy, and to place yourself under the control of the person with whom you live as a couple.

Here are some examples of economic violence:

• Full control of the couple's resources and their use
• Deprivation of resources of the other member of the couple
• Endangering your assets (signing a mortgage, taking out consumer loans).

1. Contact the emergency services

How to contact emergency services depends on the situation you are in.

2. Establishing injuries

Injuries caused by the person with whom you are married, past or cohabiting must be recognized by a doctor.

If you have the possibility, you can have your injuries confirmed by a forensic unit (UMJ).

The UMJ is a multidisciplinary service composed of doctors, forensic pathologists, nurses, psychologists, psychiatrists, nursing assistants, medico-administrative agents, jurists and representatives of victim support associations.

The UMJ is in a hospital.

To find the unit close to where you are:

3. Report to the police or gendarmerie

If you are a victim or witness of domestic violence, you can report it to law enforcement using the following online service:

Report domestic, sexual or gender-based violence

From this service, you will have the opportunity to interact with a police officer or a military gendarmerie.

Following this report, the police or gendarmerie may conduct checks and interview potential witnesses to domestic violence.

4. Contact a victim support organization or association

Public associations and bodies are specialized in combating violence, particularly within couples.

You can find information on structures that can help you on the Stop Violence website.

You can also contact directly any of the following:

• 3919, specialized service on violence against women
• Associations of the network France Victimes, au 116,006
• Women's Rights Information Center.

1. Apply for a protection order

THEprotection order is a decision that provides urgent protection for victims of domestic violence, even if they have not (yet) filed a complaint.

It is rendered by the family affairs judge.

This order may lay down obligations and prohibitions with regard to the violent person (e.g. prohibition of contact with the victim, prohibition of attendance at the victim's home or work, etc.)

The protection order also makes it possible to rule on:

• The couple's accommodation (allocation of housing to the victim, concealment of the victim's address if relocated, etc.)
• Parental authority
• The author's health and psychological care presumed domestic violence
• The financial obligations to which the alleged perpetrator of the violence may be subject.

You can do that even if you had never lived in cohabitation with the perpetrator.

Submission of the application

You can apply for a protection order by explaining the reasons for your application by query :

Application to the Family Court Judge: Issuance of a Protection Order

You must attach to the request all the evidence of the violence suffered: medical certificates,UMJ: titleContent, photo of injuries, testimonies, SMS, etc.

Your application must be forwarded to the Family Court Judge:

• From your home, in case of common residence or when you have children together
• Orif not, the home of the alleged perpetrator of the domestic violence.

In the context of an application for a protection order, the assistance of a lawyer is not mandatory, but remains advisable.

Processing the request

Upon receipt of the application, the Family Judge will issue an order setting the date of the hearing at which he or she will consider your application.

The Registry of the Jaf: titleContent immediately notify the public prosecutor and you notified that order.

If you have a lawyer, he has to take care of signify this order to the person with whom you are married, past or cohabiting. It has a period of 2 days from the date of the hearing.

If you don't have a lawyer, the court office Jaf: titleContent or the public prosecutor will take care of the meaning.

The hearing must take place within 6 days of its date of fixing. For example, if the judge makes a fixing order on June 17, 2025, the hearing will take place before June 24, 2025.

At that hearing, the Jaf: titleContent analyzes your situation and that of the person with whom you are married, past or cohabiting.

Then, it decides on your application for a protection order. They can accept or reject your request.

2. Obtain an interim order for immediate protection (in case of emergency)

When you apply for a protection order, you can also give your consent for the public prosecutor request an interim order for immediate protection from family affairs judge.

The Family Court Judge must make his decision in a 24-hour delay from the time it was seized.

An interim order for immediate protection shall be issued provided that:

• The acts of violence are likely
• There is a grave and immediate danger violence against you or your children.

Under this order, the family judge may order several measures against the author presumed violence:

• Prohibition of contact with you and, possibly, your children
• Prohibition to appear in certain places (marital home, work of the victim, etc.)
• Prohibition on holding or wearing a weapon
• Obligation to surrender to the police or gendarmerie service nearest to the place of his residence the weapons he holds
• Suspension of rights of access and accommodation of the perpetrator of the violence
• Concealment of your mailing address (if you live in a place other than the marital home).

The interim order for immediate protection shall be valid from its notification to the person with whom you are married, past or cohabiting (or to the person with whom you were in couple).

It applies until the protection order you have previously requested is issued.

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Bracelet anti-rapprochement

The bracelet is an electronic device used to geolocate the perpetrator and victim (presumed or not) domestic violence.

This mechanism can be put in place when there is a real risk of geographical rapprochement between the members of the couple, despite a ban imposed by the judge.

Through this system, the judge delimits protection zones that separate the 2 parties :

• A pre-alert zone, with a radius of 2 to 20 kilometers around the protected person. If this zone is crossed by the wearer of the bracelet, he is then contacted by technical operators who ask him to change direction.

• An alert zone, with a radius of 1 to 10 kilometers around the protected person. If the wearer of the bracelet crosses this perimeter, the police are informed. They ensure the safety of the protected person and can call the wearer of the bracelet.

The scheme can be implemented in the context of a protection order or criminal proceedings.

Telephone serious danger

In the most serious cases of domestic violence, on public prosecutor may decide to equip you with a phone grave danger.

This is a geolocated phone that allows you, in case of serious danger, to alert law enforcement authorities through an easily reachable technical platform.

The phone can only be given to you if you no longer live together with your abusive spouse, partner or partner and if:

• He/she is prohibited from contacting you because of a court decision (e.g. protection order, conviction order, etc.)
• Or there is a real threat of aggression in the near future because the perpetrator (presumed) violence is on the run or a ban on contact has not yet been issued by the criminal courts.

If you consentHowever, the public prosecutor may provide you with this telephone at any time during the proceedings.

The phone is given for a 6 months renewable.

Protection of the child under a protection order

As part of a protection order, you can also obtain measures to protect your children together.

The family court judge may decide on parental authority.

It may also provide for the habitual residence of children common to the victim parent's home, while fixing visitation and accommodation rights for the abusive parent.

If the judge orders a ban on contact with common children, the right of access and accommodation will take place in a media center.

Withdrawal of parental authority in case of crime or misdemeanor against one of the parents

Since March 18, 2024, if your spouse, common-law partner or Civil partnerships: titleContent is sued for committing a crime against you, it no longer has the exercise ofparental authority, or his right of access and accommodation.

As a result, he can no longer make a decision about the lives of common children and is forbidden to see them.

The exercise of parental authority and the right of access and accommodation shall be suspended until the decision of the family affairs judges, until the decision of dismissal rendered by the investigating judge or until the decision of a criminal court.

If your spouse, cohabiting partner or Civil partnerships: titleContent is convicted for this crime, criminal jurisdiction must order the total withdrawal parental authority over your common child.

If it does not, it must at least order a partial withdrawal or the withdrawal from the exercise parental authority.

If your spouse, cohabiting partner or Civil partnerships: titleContent is convicted of committing an offense offense (example: physical or psychological violence) against you, the correctional court may order:

• Total or partial withdrawal of parental authority
• Or the removal of the exercise parental authority.

Emergency accommodation

For emergency accommodation, you can contact Samu social.

The social Samu will direct you to:

• Emergency and safety accommodation or non-mixed integration accommodation depending on your situation (for example: you have children) and especially if you do not have sufficient financial resources

• Or to temporary housing assistance (ALT) places, if you are accompanied by children and/or if you have financial resources or a sufficient level of autonomy.

Social housing

You can benefit from the support of specialized associations to find social housing.

These associations can sublet you furnished or unfurnished housing that they rent from HLM organizations.

Depending on your situation, you can have facilities for the payment of the deposit and the first months of rent.

You can also request the early release of your employee savings.

Conditions for universal emergency assistance

You can ask for theuniversal emergency assistance if you are a victim of violence committed by the person with whom you are couple or on behalf of your former spouse, common-law partner or Civil partnerships: titleContent.

To apply for this assistance, you must reside on French territory and:

• Be of French nationality, European Union national, the European Economic Area or Swiss nationality
• Or have a French residence permit (if you are a foreign national).

Universal emergency aid may take the form of a interest-free loan or a non-repayable assistance, according to your income and number of children you care for.

Application for universal emergency assistance (interest-free loan or non-repayable assistance)

Submission of the application

The steps to take to make an application of universal emergency assistance are the same whether you are eligible for interest-free loan or to non-repayable assistance.

Your request can be made online or on site.

Processing and outcome of the application

The body responsible for examining the application must take a decision to grant the aid or to reject the application in the 3 working days from the receipt of the request.

This period shall be extended to 5 working days if you are not a recipient of this organization.

This decision is sent to you by any means that can establish a certain date of receipt (example: registered letter with acknowledgement of receipt).

It must be argued.

It must also include the possible remedies, the time limits within which they may be exercised and the court competent to examine them.

Amount of universal emergency assistance (interest-free loan or grant)

Whatever form it takes (interest-free loan or non-repayable aid), the basic amount of universal emergency assistance is of €646.52.

This amount is increased depending on the number of dependent children.

It is reduced according to the share of your income greater than Smic: titleContent.

The following table shows the amount of aid according to these two criteria.

Repayment of emergency aid in the form of an interest-free loan

If you have received emergency universal assistance as a loan, you must start repaying it as of the 24th^e month following its allocation.

For example, if you start collecting the loan amounts in June 2025, repayment must begin 24 months after the loan is awarded, that is, in June 2027.

Reimbursement must be made in maximum 24 monthly installments of the same amount.

You can make an early refund or a refund in one go.

Reimbursement can also be made by deducting from other benefits to be received from the Caf: titleContent or MSA: titleContent (example: personalized housing assistance, activity bonus, etc.).

If your financial situation does not allow you to repay the loan, you can request a total or partial debt forgiveness with the organization that awarded you the aid.

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