The suburbs in France: Drugs, violence & riots

Résumé du document

This paper gives the reader an introduction to a real French suburb. Recently, the suburbs of France are quite in the picture of the world's media, because of the several riots in November 2005 and even now at this moment. On October the 27th it will be precisely one year ago that the hype around the suburbs in France started. Finally, there was some attention for one of France's biggest problems: the poverty and arrears quartiers of the cites in Paris, where immigrants live all together in the most unbearable situations, with violence and drugs use all around. Riots are an essential symptom; therefore this is some of the main elements of this paper. Because of the fact that drugs and violence are present in a suburb, we will try to find a link between drugs and violence in a French suburb. The focus will be especially on the drugs trade itself, and the consequences for the living population.

Extraits

[...] In fact, like some legal activities, it creates a mind of clan. People who are working in the business help each other. For example, if someone knows that police will come soon, he will share this information with his or her partners. It is the same when someone needs money for a short time. Solidarity is not so large that it could unite different clans from different suburbs. In fact, there are numerous clans, even in the same suburb, and they don't like to see others traffickers on their own plot. [...]

[...] This fear is strengthened because inhabitants know that police will probably not come if something happens. Another problem concerns public safety. It is the fear of the parents for their children, who can find needles in the streets and halls of the buildings. Chapter Conclusion In the introduction of the paper we had formulated the following problem: How is violence connected to drugs in a typical ‘banlieue' of France? The first option was to explain the violence in a more biological way, whether the use of cannabis could predict violent behavior or not. [...]

[...] Potter, Drugs in society, Causes, Concepts and Control, Matthew Bender & Company Cannabisbeleid in Duitsland, Frankrijk, en de Verenigde Staten, CEDRO, Instituut voor Sociale Geografie, Universiteit van Amsterdam Boekhout an Solinge, Tim, Heroïne, cocaïne en crack in Frankrijk, handel gebruik en beleid, CEDRO, Instituut voor Sociale Geografie, Universiteit van Amsterdam Boekhout an Solinge, Tim, Dealing with Drugs in Europe, An investigation of European Drugs Control Experiences: France, The Netherlands and Sweden, proefschrift Universiteit Utrecht, Willem Pompe Instituut voor Strafrechtswetenschappen Other magazines and articles Different articles from Elsevier: 'Joint roken veel schadelijker dan sigaret' maandag 27 maart 2006 Cannabis verdubbelt kans op dodelijk ongeluk, vrijdag 2 december 2005 Opnieuw bewijs: cannabis slecht voor jeugd, woensdag 1 december 2005 Waarschuwing: nieuwe rellen Franse voorsteden, dinsdag 24 oktober 2006 Petrou,Michael., Maclean's, The riots are just a symptom,11/21/2005, Vol Issue 47: Academic Search Elite Kimmel, Alain, Violence in School, European Education,Spring 2000, Vol Issue 1 Academic Search Elite Young, bored and inclined to crime, Economist, 02/06/99, Vol Issue 8105 Academic Search Elite International Journal of Intercultural Relations, Volume 28, Issue September 2004, Pages 415- Mattew Macallester, Power of design, After renovations, a rundown housing project becomes an oasis amid violence, Newsday 15 november 2005 Parker, Robert Nash, Kathleen Auerhahn, Alcohol, drugs and violence, Annual review of Sociology, vol pp.291-311 Didier, Fasin, Riots in France and silent antropologists, At Antropology Today, vol no Observatoire Géopolitique des Drogues (1996), Geopolitiques des drogues 1996, Parijs 2 Geneviève Barrette et al., Acculturation orientations of French and North African undergraduates in Paris, International Journal of Intercultural Relations Volume 28, Issue September 2004, Pages 415-438 Wieviorka, M. (1998). Le multiculturalisme est-il la réponse? Cahiers Internationaux de Sociologie, CV, 233–260. Haarscher, G., La Laïcité, Presses Universitaires de France, Paris (1996). [...]

[...] The public infrastructure too, especially since the riots of November 2005. For instance, in the French suburbs, you will not see a post office, a hospital or police headquarters. Another problem in the daily life of the inhabitants is what the French call the “carte scolaire”. According to this system, you are not allowed to choose the school of your children, you have to put them in the school where you live. That means young people who attempt or do unlawful things are together all day, even in school. [...]

[...] The different actors in the trade use violence to solve conflicts and to preserve territory. The third explanation tries to expose the role of the police in the drugs trade. Violence prevails against policeman, because it disturbs the trafficking jobs of the actors. Sometimes violence is encouraged by the police, when special tactics, although contrary to the law, are used to catch more important actors of the drugs business. A new type of game, ‘ambush' lures policemen into a trap. [...]