International E-Journal of Advances in Social Sciences

Yazarlar: Pınar AKKUŞ

Konular:Sosyal

DOI:10.18769/ijasos.592724

Anahtar Kelimeler:Victims of child sexual abuse,Perpetrators of child sexual abuse,Turkish criminal code,Child protection system,Social services

Özet: 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. 

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