Attitudes among judiciary and junior clerks toward the survivors of childhood sexual abuse.

Childhood sexual abuse is a growing concern throughout the world, although the legal sequelae of this phenomenon are frequently neglected. We aimed to reveal and compare the attitudes of judiciary and junior clerks toward sexually abused children that might contribute to these sequelae. We divided 302 study participants into two groups of judiciary members and junior clerks. All the participants were asked to anonymously complete a questionnaire about stigmatization, including questions assessing social distance, dangerousness and skillfulness. In their responses, 51.2% of the judiciary and 64.0% of the junior clerks displayed a negative attitude toward "asking a childhood sexual abuse (CSA) survivor to supervise their child for few hours" (p=0.029). When asked "What would you think if your child wanted to marry a CSA survivor?" 76.5% of the judiciary and 84.1% of the junior clerks were opposed to the idea (p=0.095). Interestingly, significantly more judiciary than junior clerks believed that a "CSA survivor can control his/her rage" (p=0.001), and significantly more of the junior clerks did not believe that "CSA survivors do not behave impulsively" (p=0.034). Both groups of legal professionals in this study appear to distance themselves from or have negative thoughts about CSA survivors, particularly when the issue involves their own children and/or social situations. Along with other factors, these negative assumptions might also contribute to lower prosecution rates and retestifying procedures.

Attitudes among medical and nonmedical university students toward the survivors of childhood abuse.

OBJECTIVE: Childhood sexual abuse (CSA) is increasing, and current studies should address issues such as stigmas and casual attitudes that may be amenable to intervention. Thus, we aimed to investigate the effects of education on the attitudes of medical students toward CSA survivors. METHOD: We divided medical students into 2 groups: preclinical and clinical medical students. We compare the attitudes of nonmedical students with the attitudes of medical students with respect to survivors of CSA. All participants were asked to complete a questionnaire about stigmatization. RESULTS: There were 572 students in our study, 347 of whom were enrolled in medical school. Of the 347 medical students, 151 were from the preclinical group, and 196 were from the clinical practice group. The remainder of the participants (n = 225) were in other fields of university. Of the medical students, 68.3% responded negatively about "asking a survivor of abuse to supervise their child for a few hours," whereas 62.7% of the nonmedical students responded negatively. When asked, "What would you think if your child wanted to marry a survivor of sexual abuse?", 72.9% of the medical students and 59.1% of the nonmedical students displayed negative attitudes toward that idea. Our research also found that significantly more preclinical students than clinical students would not want to be in a companionship/friendship with a CSA survivor at work (P = .015) or in their neighborhoods (P = .034). CONCLUSION: Both medical and nonmedical students seem to have negative thoughts about sexual abuse survivors, particularly when the issue involves their own children and/or social situations. Thus, the medical professionals must be careful and should avoid over interpretations of findings on childhood abuse studies that may lead to stigmatization.

[Evaluation of "life-threatening" definition and negligence in children treated in the emergency surgery service burn unit (from the viewpoint of forensic medicine)]. / Acil cerrahi yanik ünitesinde tedavi edilen çocuklarda yasamsal tehlike taniminin ve ihmalin adli tip açisindan irdelenmesi.

BACKGROUND: The aim of this study is to outline the sociodemographic and traumatic characteristics of children who were referred to the Burn Unit of Emergency Service with burn injuries, to discuss the doctors' approach to these cases, and to compare the prognosis of patient groups with and without life-threat. METHODS: This epidemiological study was carried out between 14 October 2004 and 31 December 2006 and included a total of 134 pediatric patients aged between 0-18 years. A semi-structured questionnaire form was designed to obtain the information from the study population. The obtained data were statistically evaluated. RESULTS: 66.2% (n=90) of the cases were male and 33.8% (n=46) were female. The mean age of the study population was 3.9+/-4.1 years and the mean percentage of burned body area was 22.47+/-17.37. The main cause of burn was scalding with hot water, with a frequency of 77.2% (n=105). When the percentage of burn area of the body was lower than 20%, the mortality was 6.3% (n=6), whereas it was 61% (n=25) when the burn area exceeded 20% of the body (p=0.0001). While the mortality was 21.0% (n=25) among the cases with first-degree burns, it was 35.3% (n=6) among those with second- and third-degree burns (p=0.189). Mortality ratio among the cases with life-threat was higher than those without life-threat, and this difference was statistically significant (p=0.033). CONCLUSION: Extent of burn is a determinative factor for prognosis in children. Evaluation of all burn cases in children should be approached as cases of neglect/abuse; protection of these children in this manner will serve as an important practice of preventive medicine.