Child abuse cases boom in Turkey
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Hurriyet Daily News
Oluşturulma Tarihi: Kasım 24, 2008 00:00
ANKARA - Turkey has seen a significant boom in child abuse cases. Nearly 120 children are sent to the forensic medicine department weekly for psychological examinations.
The issue of child abuse was revisited in the country when the conservative daily columnist Hüseyin Üzmez was accused of abusing a 14-year-old girl. The controversial forensic report for the case revealed that the physical and mental well being of the victim was not harmed by the incident.
Coşkun Yorulmaz of Istanbul University’s Cerrahpaşa Medicine Faculty said although around 100 to 120 children are sent to the forensic institution weekly for examination, " ... this is just the tip of the iceberg; it constitutes only 10 or 20 percent of the overall known cases."
Child abuse is the physical, psychological or sexual maltreatment of children and sexual activity does not necessarily mean just sexual intercourse, according to Yorulmaz. Sexual maltreatment includes a wide range of incidents from touching the child for sexual purposes to rape.
"Children of all ages and even babies could face abuse. In most cases, the exploiter is someone whom the abused child or the family already knows. The child usually hides the event if the exploiter is someone known, thinking that if he accused his abuser, he could be accused too in the end," he said.
Noting that the number of child abuse cases were considered dreadful, he said, "Around 120 children are brought to the forensic medicine department weekly and 70 of them are given a psychological trauma report due to sexual abuse. The figure is thus the tip of the iceberg."
He said it was possible to detect whether the child had faced sexual abuse, adding, "The most common signs of such an event include sudden failure in school grades, controversy with family members, introversion, drawing pictures that don't match his age, sexual behaviors such as wearing mini skirts, complaints about the urinary tract, fear of sleeping alone and of darkness."
Coşkun Yorulmaz of Istanbul University’s Cerrahpaşa Medicine Faculty said although around 100 to 120 children are sent to the forensic institution weekly for examination, " ... this is just the tip of the iceberg; it constitutes only 10 or 20 percent of the overall known cases."
Child abuse is the physical, psychological or sexual maltreatment of children and sexual activity does not necessarily mean just sexual intercourse, according to Yorulmaz. Sexual maltreatment includes a wide range of incidents from touching the child for sexual purposes to rape.
"Children of all ages and even babies could face abuse. In most cases, the exploiter is someone whom the abused child or the family already knows. The child usually hides the event if the exploiter is someone known, thinking that if he accused his abuser, he could be accused too in the end," he said.
Noting that the number of child abuse cases were considered dreadful, he said, "Around 120 children are brought to the forensic medicine department weekly and 70 of them are given a psychological trauma report due to sexual abuse. The figure is thus the tip of the iceberg."
He said it was possible to detect whether the child had faced sexual abuse, adding, "The most common signs of such an event include sudden failure in school grades, controversy with family members, introversion, drawing pictures that don't match his age, sexual behaviors such as wearing mini skirts, complaints about the urinary tract, fear of sleeping alone and of darkness."