General Characteristics of Child Sexual Offenders in Hatay, Turkey.

OBJECTIVE: Child sexual offenders are a poorly studied and relatively neglected population in our country. This study aims to evaluate the relationship between criminal behavior and socio-demographic characteristics of a series of child sexual offenders. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The records of social worker interviews with 48 child sexual offenders between 2009 and 2013 were used. The reports issued by social workers regarding child sexual offenders were retrospectively examined, since these reports were relatively the most thorough documents including offenders' personal and familial characteristics, and criminal event information. Cases were investigated in terms of socio-demographic and psychosocial characteristics. RESULTS: There were 48 children interviewed based on an alleged sexual crime, during four-year of study period. All of the cases were male and their ages ranged between 12 and 17 years. Of these, 50% were students at any grade of school. Five cases were living in social service facilities. Only two cases involved incest. Of all, three offenders were accused of repeated sexual crimes. Type of sexual assault was anal penetration in 20 (41.7%) cases. Of all cases, 19 were cigarette smoker, while 4 were drug abusers. The families of 12 (25%) cases suffered from low socio-economic status, while 23 (47.9%) offenders were members of broken families. According to social worker reports, 47 cases had criminal responsibility based on their psychosocial development. Out of all cases, 7 children were suspected of suffering from impulse control disorder and one was suspected to be mentally retarded. Twelve cases were reported to need consulting and social protective services. CONCLUSION: The rate of offenders with interrupted education was considerably high. Interestingly the number of male victims and the frequency of cases involving anal penetration were high. Obtained results suggest that male children of broken and scattered families, and particularly those lacking father's supervision were more likely to commit a sexual crime.

Childhood casualties during civil war: Syrian experience.

In war areas a lot of children die as well as adults. According to UNICEF, almost 2 million children have died in the wars took place in the last 10 years. In this study, we aimed to evaluate demographical data and injury characteristics of Syrian children who were wounded in Syria Civil War and died while being treated in Turkey. Postmortem examination and autopsy reports of 985 forensic deaths from Hatay -a Syrian neighborhood city of Turkey-between January 2012 and August 2014 were analyzed retrospectively. Among 763 Syrian people who were wounded in the war and died while being treated in Turkey, 140 cases (18.3%) who were younger than 18 years of age were taken into the scope of this study. Among those cases 77.9% (n = 109) were male and 22.1% were female. Median ages of female cases are 14 (min-max: 2-18) and median age of female cases are 9 (min-max: 1-18). Frequency distribution is highest between 13 and 18 years of age (n: 71, 50.7%). In 70% (n: 98) of cases, cause of death is bombing and shrapnel injuries, 13.6% (19) of them were killed by gunshot wounds. According to injury sites most of the injuries were reported to be on multiple body parts (54.3%, n: 76) and only head and neck injuries (%30). Cause of death was intracranial bleeding and cerebral parenchymal injury in most of the cases (n: 66, %47.1) followed by vascular damage with external bleeding (n: 15, %10.7) and internal organ damage with internal bleeding (n: 15, %10.7). The cases had very high level Abbreviated Injury Scales and Injury Severity Sores. In conclusion, a lot of children have died in the Civil War of Syria. Their average abbreviated injury scale and injury severity score values reported very high. Children that we evaluated were mostly died of head and neck injuries predominantly caused by bombing attacks and Autopsies of them revealed fatal intracranial hemorrhages and parenchymal injuries.

Analysis of methanol and its derivatives in illegally produced alcoholic beverages.

INTRODUCTION: Illegal alcohol production remains as a common issue worldwide. Methanol poisoning mostly occurs because of the methanol used in production of counterfeit alcohol instead of ethyl alcohol due to its low price or by drinking the liquids containing methyl alcohol. Pectolytic enzymes results in an increase of methanol levels in many fermentation products such as ciders or wines. Methanol poisonings are infrequently encountered in forensic medicine practice. However, sporadic cases due to methanol intoxication as well as epidemic cases have been reported. In this study, we aimed to identify existence of methanol and its metabolites in illegally produced alcoholic beverages used in Antakya region. MATERIAL AND METHODS: Twelve legally produced alcohol samples and Fifty-six different illegally produced alcohol samples were collected from the markets and local producers. Existence of methanol, formic acid, methyl amine, methyl formate and trioxan were determined using GC-MS method in these samples. RESULTS: Fifty-six different illegal alcohol samples were analyzed in this study and methanol was detected in 39 (75%) of samples. Formic acid was detected in 3, formamide in 1, methyl amine in 6, methyl formate in 10 and trioxan in 2 samples. CONCLUSION: Overwhelming majority of illegal alcoholic beverages was detected to contain methanol. Interestingly this study also revealed the presence of trioxane, which has not previously reported among toxic agents in illegal alcohol samples.

Evaluation of sexual assaults in Turkey.

INTRODUCTION: Sex crimes remain an important problem all over the world. Very few studies about sexual offenses in Turkey have been published. Sexual assault is a serious social problem that constitutes serious health conditions affecting the lives of involved individuals. In this study, we aimed to investigate socio-demographic features of victims, assailant-victim relationships and sexual assault findings. MATERIAL AND METHODS: A total of 324 sexual assault victims presenting to and examined in the Department of Forensic Medicine, Kahramanmaras Sutcu Imam University Medical Faculty, between January 2007 and December 2010 were included in the study. The victims completed a survey at face to face interviews. RESULTS: Of 324 victims, 268 (82.7%) were female and 56 (17.3%) were male. The mean age of the victims was 16.78 ± 7.16 years. In all cases, types of the assaults were as following; vaginal penetration in 160 (49.4%), anal penetration in 117 (36.1%), oral penetration with penis in 7 (2.2%) and in the form of kissing, fondling, touching the sex organ and rubbing the sex organ in 60 (18.5%) cases. Of all the assaults, 149 (46%) were found to take place in the assailants' homes and 49 (15.1%) in the victims' homes. Of 139 cases, 85 (26.3%) had genital injury alone and 54 (16.7%) had anal injury. CONCLUSION: On the contrary to the previous studies, this study revealed that sexual assaults occurred mostly in the assailants' homes and that the incidence of anal trauma was higher.

Unexpected suicide and irrational thinking in adolescence: a case report.

This report aims to draw attention to the fragility of adolescents' mind and irrational thinking in adolescence that might lead to suicide due to unusual experiences, by presenting a case of completed suicide with its unusual etiology. The victim, a 13 years old boy, had a quarrel with his mother as she sacrificed his pet, a cock, to prepare for dinner. Because of this, the victim had denied to join the family for dinner and wanted to be alone. While the family having dinner, a passing by neighbor realized that the victim was suspended with a ligature around his neck, in the backyard of the house. Meaningfully, there were feathers of cock in pants pockets of the deceased, in the corpse examination. Adolescents are experiencing dramatic physical and emotional changes, and being oversensitive and fragile in that period of life. Thus, a life experience that is tolerable to adults might badly affect adolescents and lead to suicide which is incomprehensible to them.

Firing distance estimates with pellet dispersion from shotgun with various chokes: an experimental, comparative study.

There are several studies suggesting models for firing distance estimation due to pellet dispersion, but few of them consider the degree of choke of a shotgun. The purpose of this research is to suggest some models for estimation of the firing distance for choked and cylinder bore shotguns. Twelve gauge with full chokes, and 12 and 16 gauge with cylinder bore shotguns were fired with #2 and #5 shots from 75, 100, 300, 500, and 1000 cm distances. Statistically significant pellet dispersion values were found for each shotgun by using #2 and #5 shots for different firing distances. All the data obtained were analyzed with linear regression and four models were constituted. Investigators should use special formulae for each shotgun, degree of choke, and pellet type while determining the firing distance. Therefore, more experimental and comparative studies should be designed for each type.

Deaths due to corrosive ingestion: a 10-year retrospective study.

OBJECTIVES: Evaluation of the substances used, macroscopic and microscopic autopsy findings, and the manner of corrosive ingestion deaths in Istanbul are aimed in this study. METHODS: The autopsy records of the corrosive ingestion cases in Istanbul, Turkey, between 1992 and 2001 are investigated in our retrospective descriptive study. RESULTS: The cause of death was determined as "corrosive injury" in 23 (0.089%) cases among 25,763 autopsy cases. Among these cases one was in the child age group and the corrosive substance ingestion was accidental, whereas all the other cases were adults and the ingestion was for suicidal intent. Sixteen (69.6%) of the cases were female. Nitric acid was the most frequent agent with 13 cases (56.5%). Necrosis of esophagus was determined in 19 cases (82.6%) and perforation of stomach in 11 cases (47.8%). CONCLUSION: Guidance and education are important tools for prevention from corrosive injuries, but we believe that the best weapon is to restrict easy access to corrosive agents by prohibiting the free commercialization of these most potent agents.