Evaluation of the Adjudicated Incest Cases in Turkey: Difficulties in Notification of Incestuous Relationships

Abstract

The aim of this study was to determine the prevalence and evaluation of the adjudicated incest cases in the heavy penal court in a province of western Turkey. The court files of 65 incest cases during a 10-year period between 1999 and 2008 were explored. When compared to those who lived in cities, the cases who lived in rural areas, such as villages or towns, had been exposed to penetration more frequently (94.3% and 70.0%, respectively, p<0.01). For the cases where the victim and perpetrator lived in the same house, the accused were generally members of the nuclear family (p<0.001). When compared to those who had not been exposed to penetration, most of those who had been exposed to it were determined to apply later (after 10 days) to judicial institutions (77.8%, p<0.01). The education and awareness of persons, such as teachers and physicians, who may confront incestuous relationships rather frequently are very important in the protection of children and in their adaptation to society.

Incest Relationship between a Sister and Mentally Retarded Brother which Resulted in Pregnancy and Birth: A Case Report

“…In previous studies, it has been shown that the psychological problems formed after events on an individual level such as incest, sexual assault etc. are more permanent and affect the victim's life more negatively than those arising from events which affect the whole community such as natural disasters or wars [1,[12][13][14][15][16]. Therefore, healthcare workers and educators must give great attention to the subject of incest.…”

Evaluation of the incest cases in Hatay

“…Even if families are aware of the event, they prefer to not disclose the event to keep it confidential in most cases [3,7].…”

“…Studies concerning incest are limited to questionnaires, case reports and local researches [2,3,7,8].…”

“…While some authors describe incest as an incestuous relationship within the nuclear family only, more accepted definition of incest is sexual actions of all those who are obligated to care of them [1][2][3].…”

“…The incest relationships between people who have parental bonds and trust have been ignored for years. Therefore, in recent studies, instead of a blood bond, parental dominance and power over the victim and dependence of the child for care have become more important [1][2][3][4].…”