JUSTICE: Full house at the Marigot local court for the 2025 JNAD dedicated to the theme of juvenile violence | FAXINFO

June 3, 2025

On the occasion of the National Day of Access to Law (JNAD), France Victims 971 and the Departmental Council for Access to Law of Guadeloupe organized a conference-debate on the *juvenile violence, a crucial theme in Saint-Martin.***

Seats were limited in the small, historic hall of the Saint-Martin and Saint-Barthélemy local court at 14 p.m., when the event began. Many social actors from the island's institutions, students from the Daniella Jeffry vocational high school, as well as parents and civilians, attended this major event, held annually in the spring.

The panel discussion began with an initial one-hour presentation led by Deputy Prosecutor Marie-Lucie Godard, accompanied by Gendarmerie Commander François Zimmer and Juvenile Judge Marie-Georges Martinvalet. These successive speeches provided an opportunity to make a damning observation: the island of Saint Martin is being severely affected by the escalation of violence and juvenile delinquency.

Indeed, Gendarmerie Commander François Zimmer emphasized that out of approximately 3200 victims of violence in 2024, approximately 7% of these victims are minors. And above all, minor perpetrators of violence are also overrepresented in the territory (15% of perpetrators). Marie-Lucie Godard then emphasized the firmness and fairness that must be demonstrated in the juvenile court's decisions in order to stop this harmful spiral.

The final part of the event was devoted to the presentation of three renowned child psychologists, Errol Nuissier, Farah Viotty and Eva Da Silva, who invited the public and young people present to submit their questions anonymously in writing and then to discuss the issues raised.

The rather virulent intervention of a woman in the audience, accusing the State actors in this drift (Justice and National Education) pushed Françoise Mariaux, magistrate, to recognize that Justice is mainly concerned with the "failure management", because the institution only intervenes at the end of the violence process.

A lively conference-debate which nevertheless managed to provoke diverse reactions from the audience and raise real underlying issues.

_THERE