Sexual Offenses Against Sexual Inviolability in Türkiye: Judicial Statistics and Forensic Examination Coverage
ABSTRACT
Objective:
In Türkiye, forensic examination of sexual assault victims is legally required to be performed by a physician, but no specific medical specialty or forensic training is mandated. In practice, it is often performed by obstetrician-gynecologists or general surgeons rather than forensic specialists. This study aimed to describe the relationship between prosecuted sexual offense cases and recorded forensic examinations and to review relevant physician training requirements.
Materials and Methods:
Judicial statistics for Turkish Penal Code (TPC) Articles 102, 103, and 104, covering sexual offenses potentially requiring examination, were obtained from the Ministry of Justice's annual yearbooks for 2009–2025. Genital and anal examination counts from the Council of Forensic Medicine were obtained from the same source and were available only for 2009–2021. Prosecution and examination counts were independent aggregate datasets, not linked at the individual case level. The ratio of examinations to prosecutions was calculated descriptively for each year. Core curricula for obstetrics and gynecology, general surgery, emergency medicine, undergraduate education, and forensic medicine were reviewed.
Results:
Prosecutions filed under Articles 102–104 rose from 20,566 in 2009 to 31,143 in 2019, then declined to 20,864 in 2025. The genital examination-to-prosecution ratio fell from 18.6% in 2009 to 7.1% in 2021, the last year with published data. The anal examination ratio rose from 1.8% to a peak of 14.2% in 2018, then declined to 4.7% in 2021. Neither obstetrics and gynecology nor general surgery curricula include competencies in forensic sample collection or chain of custody; emergency medicine includes related competencies only at the lowest level, whereas these competencies are addressed at the highest level in forensic medicine curricula.
Conclusion:
The declining ratio suggests, but does not confirm, a growing share of examinations occurring outside the forensic medicine system. The specialties that may perform these examinations lack standardized forensic training, indicating that training is not systematically required rather than demonstrating that individual physicians lack training. Closing this gap requires structured training and dedicated response centers.
Keywords:
Sexual assault
forensic examination
evidence collection
curriculum
clinical competence
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