ABSTRACT

The objective was to determine the situation of sexual assault cases among youths, to reveal regional features and to make suggestions by evaluating the cases of youths appealed to Muğla Directorate of Forensic Medicine Council.

217 reports were evaluated retrospectively; belonging to the age group of 15-24 years; out of 477 sexual assault cases; that we examined between June 2012 and December 2016.

There were 244 examinations for 217 cases and 71,4% of them belongs to the age group of 15-19 years, 88,9% of them was having Turkish nationality, 91,2% was female and 8,8% was male. The cases were mostly coming from Muğla city center (23,5%) and Marmaris (20,3%). The suspected assailant was ex/new spouse-fiancé-lover for 31,8% of cases, while for 10,6% of cases the suspected assailant was from immediate acquaintances/friends and totally in 85 % of cases the assailant was someone known by the victim. In majority, the crime scene was home (55,3%). For 67,7% of case, the first examination was made in the Directorate of Forensic Medicine Council, for 30,8% of cases the examinations were made in 72 hours. In majority we were asked to write a report about victims if they were physically or psychologically health-impaired or not due to the crime (82%) according to the 102/5 and 103/6 articles of Turkish Penal Code and if the sexual assault happened or not; together with the type of sexual assault (47,5%).

Regionally the victims of sexual assault were women in the majority, belonging to the age group of 15-19 years, the assailants were majorly someone known by the victim, the crime scenes were usually home and all these data were compatible with the literature. The delay in juridical application process by victims was found to be remarkable. It should not be forgotten that the psychiatric evaluation is a part of the examination and the change in the article of Turkish Penal Code in June 2014 annulling the facts relating to psychiatric evaluations does not annul the necessity of psychiatric evaluations. To minimize the traumatization of the victims caused by the repetitive statement taking and examinations in the course of the judicial process; application centers should urgently be established; that works with a multidisciplinary approach enabling medico-social-legal support and gathering evidence.

Keywords: Forensic Medicine, Sexual Assault, Re-traumatization, Genital Examination