Aim: It was aimed to evaluate children in conflict with the law who were referred by the Public Prosecutor’s Office to the Forensic Medicine Branch Directorate under Article 31/2 of the Turkish Penal Code, in terms of their ability to perceive the legal meaning and consequences of their acts and to direct their behavior, based on the types of crimes and their sociodemographic data.Material and Methods: Children pushed to crime who were referred to a Forensic Medicine Branch Directorate for evaluation under Article 31/2 of the Turkish Penal Code were retrospectively examined in terms of the types of crimes they committed, whether they had previously committed offenses, their sociodemographic data, and any existing psychiatric diagnoses and examinations.Results: It was determined that among the 50 children participating in the study, 18 were girls and 32 were boys, with a mean age of 13.84. It was found that 18% had a prior criminal record, 26% had a history of psychiatric clinical involvement, and 10% had previously used various psychiatric medications. In 44% of the cases, offenses such as simple assault, insult, and threat were observed.Conclusion: In our study, it was observed that cases of juvenile delinquency increased most notably among the 14-year-old age group and among boys, and that children were most frequently brought to law enforcement for offenses such as minor assault, insult, and threat. In order to prevent these cases, significant responsibilities fall on families, as well as on many institutions and organizations.
Altıner et al. (Sun,) studied this question.