New figures released on Tuesday gave an insight into the changing face of France's petty criminals.
According to the data published by the National observatory of crime and criminal liability (ONDRP), the number of foreigners accused of robbery and theft in France has shot up by ten percent since 2008.
The report, which analyzed data from the French criminal records database (Stic) between 2008 and 2012, revealed that of all those accused of theft and robbery in 2012, over a quarter were from abroad.
Of the foreigners implicated in robberies in 2012, 9.5 percent were Romanian or from Balkan countries and 7.8 percent were from North Africa.
"Over the last four years, we can see the emergence of significant new criminal gangs from the Balkans and former states in the Soviet union. They see that these minor infractions are rarely spotted by the police and when they are carried out in series and in high numbers can bring in a lot of money," said Christophe from the ONDRP.
Of the total 152,000 people accused of theft in France in 2012, 23.8 percent were women, 32.6 percent were minors and 26.8 percent were foreigners, according to the report.
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