Lyhanna Tragedy – 53 Children Are Killed Each Year in France -

The tragic case of Lyhanna, an 11-year-old middle school student whose body was found on June 4, 2026, in the Gers department of France, has once again brought the reality of fatal violence against minors into sharp focus.

The reference study published by INSEE entitled “Homicides Committed in France Between 2016 and 2020” indicates that homicides involving minors under the age of 15 consistently account for 5.8% of all homicides in France.

66% of intentional homicides involving minors under the age of 15 are committed by a family member, a proportion 2.2 times higher than for homicides involving persons over the age of 15.

The UNODC data portal reports an average of 53 homicides of children under the age of 14 per year in France between 2015 and 2023.

According to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), 205,153 children aged 0 to 14 were victims of homicide worldwide between 2008 and 2017.
Based on data from 44 countries, UNODC estimates that 56.5% of child homicides are committed by parents, with the highest proportion of parental child homicides occurring in high-income countries.

Below is a list of 20 countries for which the UNODC data portal was able to collect complete data for the period 2016–2022.
The list is ranked in descending order according to the homicide rate per 100,000 inhabitants.

Pays	Number of Child Homicides (Under Age 14), 2016–2022	Rate per 100,000 inhabitants
Colombia	1249	2,34
Hungary	55	0,58
Germany	482	0,57
Turkey	463	0,54
Austria	49	0,53
Chile	102	0,51
France	339	0,49
Ireland	26	0,48
Canada	199	0,48
Australia	105	0,38
Denmark	21	0,35
Switzerland	31	0,34
Serbia	21	0,32
Netherlands	57	0,31
Poland	110	0,30
England and Wales	173	0,28
Spain	112	0,23
Norway	11	0,20
Italy	102	0,17
Estonia	2	0,15

Data on homicides of children under the age of 14 are not reported for the United States. However, data are available for homicides involving children aged 15 to 17:

Pays	Number of Homicides of People Aged 15–17, 2016–2022	Rate per 100,000 inhabitants
Colombia	2981	5,58
United States	6096	1,78
Chile	191	0,96
Turkey	477	0,56
Canada	135	0,33
Estonia	3	0,22
France	135	0,20
England and Wales	94	0,15
Denmark	9	0,15
Hongary	12	0,13
Netherlands	18	0,10
Australia	27	0,10
Germany	66	0,08
Autria	7	0,08
Norway	4	0,07
Poland	21	0,06
Ireland	3	0,06
Serbia	3	0,05
Switzerland	4	0,04
Spain	20	0,04
Italiy	19	0,03