Immigration and Criminality

The troublesome investigation

Directed by Gilles Cayatte

Let's take a widespread prejudice in France...

Trailer

Episode 1 - The troublesome investigation

Let's take a widespread prejudice in France: "the more immigrants there are, the higher criminality there is". John Paul Lepers is strongly convinced of this and wants to prove it. Using the data from the French Ministry of Home Affairs’ statistics institute (INSEE), he first goes in the cities with the highest immigrant populations: Aubervilliers, Beausoleil, Ferney-Voltaire and Oyonnax. The gap between the criminal rate in these four cities and the number of immigrants is such that he has to change his method. He compared criminality rates in two cities completely opposed: Montbéliard, with a high immigration rate, and Caen, that barely has any. The results astounded him: they have the same criminality rate. With the help of statisticians and criminality experts, he demonstrates that there is no link between immigration and criminality.

Episode 2 - Building a prejudice

In a second film, John Paul Lepers tries to understand why he, as many others, believes in this prejudice. He discovers the insidious mechanisms at the root of all discrimination. With the help of professors in social psychology, he carries out experiments in primary schools and laboratory rooms that reveal the unconscious processes that lead us to create human categories and stereotypes, which become prejudices at the root of all discrimination.


Direction :
Gilles Cayatte
Writing :
Christophe Nick and Gilles Cayatte - an investigation by John Paul Lepers
Production :
YAMI 2 - Christophe Nick
Broadcast :
France 2
Year of broadcast :
2014
Duration :
2×70 min

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