Research Information System
ISTSS 35th Annual Meeting Trauma, Recovery and Resilience: Charting a Course Forward, Massachusetts, United States Of America, 14 - 16 November 2019, pp.353
Sexual violence is committed against the privacy, personality, physical and mental health of the
individual. According to Turkish Penal Code, any person who violates the physical integrity of another
person, by means of sexual conduct, shall be sentenced to a penalty of imprisonment for a term of two to
ten years upon the complaint of the victim. The term of sentence would be increased based on the way of
the crime committed. Our aim is to evaluate the importance of psychological trauma on litigation process.
Our department provides an assessment based on a hollistic approach in order to conduct a
comprehensive medicolegal evaluation. Our study consists of 141 women, who have encountered sexual
assault. All of the victims were interviewed in Istanbul University Faculty of Medicine, Department of
Forensic Medicine and evaluated by using PDS (PTS Diagnostic Scale). 39 of them were alleged sexual
harrassment cases and 102 of them were alleged rape cases. Sixty eight of them had also suffered
additional physical injuries during assaults. Our cases were referred to us by court order, women support
centers or applied on their own. Legal proceedings had already been initiated by 102 women. Thirty two
of the perpetrators faced various punishments while litigation was on process. The contribution of
assessment of psychological trauma in documentation of sexual violence is discussed.