94 minors became victims of murder and 424 of attempted murder in France in 2025, according to official French statistics. The number of murders and attempted murders of persons under 18 years of age in the country has increased by 178 per cent – that is, almost a tripling – since 2016, reports Le Figaro.

The murder of Louis (17) in Norbonne, who was lynched by a youth gang on 19 June and died of his injuries on 23 June, has put the spotlight on the sharply increasing youth violence in France – once again because the extreme violence was filmed and spread online. A large protest march went through the southern French town five days after the 17-year-old’s life ebbed away.

17-Year-Old Killed in Brutal Ambush in Narbonne, France

The lynching, filmed by one of the aggressors and circulated on social media, has sparked widespread outrage across France, with five young suspects remaining in pre-trial detention.https://t.co/2nu8r4Qu1d

— The European Conservative (@EuroConOfficial) June 25, 2026

Young people are becoming more frequent victims in the general crime picture in France:

Last year there were 290,200 minors who were subjected to crime, according to the authorities’ data, corresponding to an average of 795 victims per day. And there were 232,000 suspects, that is 635 per day on average.

The police’s own statistics department (SSMSI) shows in a recent study that the number of minor victims has increased by 77 per cent since 2016, an average annual increase of almost 7 per cent. Many of the victims are very young:

In 2025, 26 % of the minor victims were under 10 years old, 52 % between 10 and 15 years old and 22 % between 16 and 17 years old.

Le Figaro calls the figures merciless and compares French society with Anthony Burgess’s 1962 novel A Clockwork Orange, which was filmed by Stanley Kubrick in 1971.

A part of youth crime has today reached a level of violence, brutality and lack of inhibitions that still seemed unthinkable a few years ago.

But what is happening is entirely in line with what Burgess envisaged:

What particularly strikes investigators is the intensity of the violence. The Louis case is a tragic example of this. The blows no longer only aim to frighten or dominate; they continue until the victim is unconscious, sometimes in danger of his life. There are often several perpetrators. The violence becomes a collective demonstration of power.

The digital sphere acts as a catalyst:

Snapchat, TikTok and Telegram are used to arrange meetings, to encourage provocations and to expand rivalry between gangs. A quarrel that arises in the schoolyard can mobilise several dozen young people within a few hours. The violent act no longer ends when the blows stop: It continues online, through the spreading of images, comments and public humiliation.

The Louis case is symptomatic, according to the leader of the police officers’ trade union (SCPN), Frédéric Lauze:

“The acts are more brutal, more collective and more uninhibited, while the value of human life at times seems to be completely erased.”

Weapons are becoming more common among young people, and youth violence is making itself felt in ever smaller places and involving ever younger persons, Le Figaro reports.