Development of a sexual assault evidence collection kit - The need for standardization in Turkey

Abstract

Sexual offences are recognized to be one of the most critical of crimes throughout the world. In Turkey, forcible rapes show, in the sexual crime rates, an increase of approximately 3% every year. It becomes even more critical, when realizing that less than half of all rapes, which are believed to occur, are reported to law enforcement, and of those few assailants who are arrested even fewer are convicted of rape. Often, little or no knowledge of the correct methods of locating, recovering, packaging, and preserving evidence specimens are the causes for compromising the forensic examination in court. This problem occurs when medical personnel are not adequately trained or properly advised in the evidentiary aspects and medical features of treating a victim.