ABSTRACT

Sexual offenses are recognized to be one of the most critical of crimes throughout the world. In Turkey, forcible rapes show a percentage of more than 3%, every year. It become even more critical when realizing that less than half of all rapes believed to occur are reported to law enforcement, and of tho-se assailants arrested even fewer are convicted of rape. Often, fear of humiliation, and lack of support in society are the rea-sons for non-accusation. On the other hand, little or no know-ledge of the correct methods of locating, recovering, packaging, and preserving evidence specimens are the causes for compro-mising the forensic examination in court. This problem occurs when medical personnel are not adequately trained or properly advised in the evidentiary aspects and medical features of trea-ting a victim.

This paper presents the results of a study to determine the li-kelihood of obtaining corroborating evidence. An updated qu-estionnaire has been applied at random on medical personnel, a total of 543 participants, throughout Turkey. Taking certa-in criteria into consideration the findings revealed a significant deficiency of knowledge regarding medical-legal examination. In comparison, a one-semester course of basic forensic nursing proved to be sufficient to recognize the amount of knowledge required to work as a forensic professional.

Based on the results, recommendations are presented in form of a SANE. This specialized area of forensic nursing has engen-dered a new type of sexual assault professional, namely, the Se-xual Assault Nurse Examiner (SANE). SANEs are nurses who have undergone extensive training qualifying them to provide comprehensive medical care and forensic collection services without physician involvement. The primary objective of the SANE model is to increase the efficiency, consistency, and qua-lity of health care and evidence collection by using a single well trained professional. This will be the first step in building a responsible and successful evidence collection program that will survive the rigors of courtroom challenge.

Keywords: Forensic nursing, SANE, sexual assault, evi-dence collection, Turkey