Protective and Supportive Injunctions for Children Exposed to Sexual Abuse: The First Data from Turkey

Guney S., Bag O.

JOURNAL OF CHILD SEXUAL ABUSE, vol.29, no.6, pp.627-637, 2020 (SSCI) identifier

  • Publication Type: Article / Article
  • Volume: 29 Issue: 6
  • Publication Date: 2020
  • Doi Number: 10.1080/10538712.2019.1703234
  • Journal Name: JOURNAL OF CHILD SEXUAL ABUSE
  • Journal Indexes: Social Sciences Citation Index (SSCI), Scopus, Academic Search Premier, ASSIA, IBZ Online, Child Development & Adolescent Studies, CINAHL, Criminal Justice Abstracts, EBSCO Education Source, Educational research abstracts (ERA), EMBASE, Gender Studies Database, MEDLINE, Psycinfo, Social services abstracts, Sociological abstracts, Violence & Abuse Abstracts
  • Page Numbers: pp.627-637
  • Keywords: Child sexual abuse, child advocacy center, social investigation, protective and supportive injunctions, ADVOCACY CENTER, PREVALENCE, DISORDER, NEGLECT, MODEL
  • Dokuz Eylül University Affiliated: Yes

Abstract

Child sexual abuse (CSA) requires multidisciplinary approach by forensic, social, and medical services, thus Child Advocacy Centers (CACs) have been established to evaluate CSA cases in Turkey. At CACs the social needs of children are assessed by social workers. Protective and supportive injunctions (PSIs) are considered at each step of evaluation and are proposed to child courts. This study aimed to evaluate PSIs at a local CAC, which is one of the leading CACs in Turkey. The study group consisted of children and adolescents exposed to CSA admitted to Izmir CAC between April 2014 and April 2015. Socio-demographic characteristics, social investigation reports, psychiatric reports, and proposed PSIs were evaluated. The rate of social investigation necessity was 28.3% (n = 113), and the rate of being proposed for at least one PSI was 24.3% (n = 97). The most common proposed injunctions were maintenance care injunctions (n = 47; 48%) and counseling injunctions (n = 46; 47%). The rate of proposed PSIs was significantly higher in adolescents, incest cases and abuse types including penetration than in the other groups. This is the first study to evaluate PSIs in the child protection system. Our results provide data about the risk groups that need PSIs among the victims of CSA cases.