Legal regulations against the crime of child
sexual abuse are related to the determination of the penalties to be imposed on
the perpetrators and the organization of the way the child protection systems
function, which is of critical importance for the victims. It is possible to
assert that in Turkey, public sensitivity towards child sexual abuse has
recently increased. In 2018, numerous amendments were proposed in the Grand
National Assembly of Turkey concerning the issue. In this study, all of the
amendment proposals regarding child sexual abuse debated at the National
Assembly in the recent legislative years have been examined, with the aim being
to understand the perspectives of the victims and perpetrators of such crimes.
In this context, the content of the 22 amendment proposals submitted at the
National Assembly between the dates of 02.07.2018 and 16.05.2019 has been
analysed. Categories have been developed on the basis of the subject and
amendments required in these proposals and these categories have been discussed
in the light of public debates. Using this method, the aim has been to
scrutinize, from the perspective of social services, the approach contained in
these amendment proposals, the articles of Turkish Criminal Code and other
legislation regarding child sexual abuse. It has been observed that in the
recent legislative years, amendment proposals were brought to the General
Assembly about four laws considering child sexual abuse. Three of these laws
(Turkish Criminal Code No. 5237, Code of Criminal Procedure No. 5271, Law No.
5275 on the Execution of Sentences and Security Measures) are related to the
criminal justice system and one (National Education Basic Law No. 1739) is
related to the education system. It has been observed that the amendment
proposals submitted to the General Assembly are heavily focused on the
penalties to be imposed on the perpetrators of child sexual abuse and the
regulations regarding the child protection system, which is of critical
importance for the victims and the education system were voiced to a less
extent. Although regulation of sexual abuse in the criminal law and imposing
the required penalties to the perpetrators is of great importance, considering
from a social services perspective, legal regulations for the development of a
system protecting the rights of children are also highly important. This study
can be expected to contribute to the literature by improving our understanding
of the child sexual abuse approaches in Turkey to the victims and perpetrators
of child sexual abuse.
Victims of child sexual abuse perpetrators of child sexual abuse Turkish criminal code child protection system social services
Primary Language | English |
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Journal Section | Articles |
Authors | |
Publication Date | September 15, 2019 |
Submission Date | July 16, 2019 |
Published in Issue | Year 2019 |
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