Even adding the weight of her thick black down jacket and platform boots, F. must not weigh more than 35 kilos. She is 27 years old, has a chiseled face, the eyes of someone who's being hunted and the body of a child. On Monday, February 24, the man accused of having raped her appeared before the Isère criminal court in Grenoble. He was her mother's former partner. Ten years earlier, F. had sat in the same seat, in the same courtroom, opposite another of her mother's partners. She was just a little girl when he started getting into her bed. When she finally had the courage to denounce him, her mother resented her for having sabotaged her love life. He was sentenced to 15 years in prison for raping a minor. By then, F.'s condition had already deteriorated. Her body stopped growing.

She was surrounded by a group of four: Her lawyer, the ad hoc guardian who accompanied her until she came of age and still watches over her, a representative from the victim support organization France Victimes and a dog named Tandem. Thirty-five kilos of warmth pressed against 35 kilos of distress. A peaceful golden retriever, Tandem has a tan coat and drooping eyelids. During the two-day trial, he never left F., lying full length at her feet, rising from time to time to lay his head on her trembling thighs, available to be petted, massaged and kneaded, or walking quietly beside her at recess. "Without him," murmured F., "I don't know if I'd have come."

Another day, another location. At the pediatric reception unit for children at risk located next to the Grenoble Hospital, two female gendarmes awaited the arrival of a minor removed three days earlier from his parents' custody on suspicion of violence against him and his little sister. Both had been placed in foster care, and the 12-year-old boy had a hard time adjusting to the situation. He entered accompanied by an educator, his body stiff, his face hostile. "I don't like gendarmes, I don't like gendarmes," he said. They were the ones who had asked France Victimes for the presence of the legal assistance dog during the filming of the boy's interview in this specially equipped room. Jérôme Boulet, one of Tandem's two handlers, knelt down beside the boy. "Do you like dogs?"

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