A disappearance as mysterious as they are worrying. Agathe, 28, was vanished four days ago. The gendarmes are still trying this Monday evening to find the trace of the young woman who left to run Thursday morning in the vicinity of Vivone, a town in Vienne located about twenty kilometers south of Poitiers. Suicide, voluntary disappearance, accident or bad meeting … If investigators do not favor any track, that involving the intervention of a third party seems, the time spending, less and less excluded. It must be said that, in the past, other joggers have been victims of assaults or even murders. Between 2005 and 2017, eleven of them were killed.
The mobile can be villainous. In June 2005, Nelly Crémel, 49, was killed by two men who stole her jewelry, his watch and her player. But in the vast majority of cases, the authors attack these women to assault them or violate them before killing them. This is the case for Martine Jung, 49, whose body was discovered in August 2007 in the Bas-Rhin. For Marie-Christine Hodeau, 42, strangled after being abused by Manuel Da Cruz in September 2009 in Milly-la-Forêt, in Essonne. Or Catherine Gardère, 51, beaten to death and then raped by Jérémy Tiberghien in October 2014 in Charente-Maritime.
Many “problematic situations”
These cases, at the time, made the front page of the press and aroused a wave of emotions in a country which has around 12 million followers of running. Among them, 4 million women who run very regularly. “There is an identification phenomenon. It is easier to project yourself through an identifying process in an activity close to the one you practice. The more likely the environment, the more spontaneous empathy we develop to the fate of the victim, “explains Mickaël Morlet-Rivelli, psychologist and legal expert.
Business that ends tragically remain rare. But as a very excavated investigation by the newspaper showed The teamthe assaults suffered by joggers are very frequent. According to a study carried out by The Union Sport & Cycle published on April 11 and revealed by France Info15 % of women who are running feel “vulnerable”. A figure that rises to 27 % among 18-24 year olds. 56 % of the joggers interviewed were faced with problematic situations, such as sexist looks or remarks. More serious, 17 % of them say they have already been followed, 7 % having been victims of displaced gestures, and 3 % of threats or assaults.
“Easier prey”
The phenomenon does not only concern France. Another survey, carried out in March 2023 in nine countries to Adidasreveals that 92 % of women do not feel safe when they jog. 51 % of the runners questioned fear physical assault and 38 % of them have already been victims of physical or verbal harassment.
How to explain that these women are particularly targeted by attackers when they practice this physical activity? “Being a woman is a factor of vulnerability. Being alone and finding yourself in a social environment that is not developed – fields, a forest – too, because there are fewer people to help. A woman who goes to jog in a rural environment will therefore be easier. This will make it less difficult to take the act of the author, ”analyzes Mickaël Morlet-Rivelli.
Avoidance strategies
The choice to tackle joggers “says nothing of the author because in matters of sexual violence, there is no standard profile”, continues this expert. The attacker “can be anyone. It benefits from an opportunity, created by the vulnerability of the victim who is isolated and which is associated with defense or alert much smaller than if it were in urban areas. An act is a timely behavior. It is the combination of a set of factors combined in the same space-time, ”he underlines.
Faced with this climate of increasing insecurity, a significant part of joggers adopt “avoidance strategies”, note the authors of the study carried out by the Union Sport & Cycle. 57 % of women interviewed declare to adapt their course, 53 % avoid running at late hours, 52 % warn a loved one, 35 % use a geolocation application, 30 % change the route regularly. To reassure themselves, more and more of them exercise their physical activity in a group. An easy approach to carry out in the city, where practitioners and associations are numerous than in the countryside.
