Akademik Veri Yönetim Sistemi
JOURNAL OF PENAL LAW AND CRIMINOLOGY-CEZA HUKUKU VE KRIMINOLOJI DERGISI, cilt.8, sa.1, ss.117-142, 2020 (ESCI)
Recent trends show that establishing protective and supportive policies for victims of sexual abuse became an important public issue, leading to a worldwide use of Forensic Interview Rooms (FIR), which has recently come up within the Turkish Judicial System. There seems to be a lack of evidence regarding the impact of FIR on sexual abuse cases as well as the victims, the judges, the lawyers and the family court specialists. Therefore, this study aimed at investigating the impact of FIR in child sexual abuse cases from the eyes of judges, lawyers, family court specialists and child victims. This qualitative study was conducted with 10 judges, 10 lawyers and 10 family court specialists serving in child sexual abuse cases in the Izmir Judicial Court, and 10 child victims. Data were gathered via semi-structured interviews developed by the authors and analyzed using content analysis. According to the results, the four groups of participants found FIR necessary and beneficial. However some of the judges, lawyers and specialists, on the basis of the principle of directness, claimed children should be heard in court as long as the necessary conditions are met. Judges, lawyers and specialists also brought up the negative impact of technical problems on the lawsuits.