Evaluation of cases applying to the child advocacy center in Aydin

According to the World Health Organization, child neglect and abuse is abusive behavior resulting in physical/emotional/sexual abuse, neglect and other forms of exploitation that adversely affects the health, survival, development or sense of trust in relationships of children under the age of 18. Child maltreatment is a major problem on a global scale, which can have lifelong negative effects on the physical and mental health of the victims, thus negatively affecting society. In this study; It is aimed to evaluate children who are victims of sexual abuse who apply to Aydın Child Advocacy Center. In our study, between 01/08/2018 and 01/08/2022, the child was referred to the Child Advocacy Center (CAC) in Aydın province with the allegation of sexual abuse, and the necessary consents were obtained from the child and his/her parents for interview and examination. It was defined as a retrospective and descriptive study, including cases under the age of 18 whose interview and examination were completed, and cases who did not make a statement of abuse in their statements and whose statements were missing were excluded from the study. In the evaluation of 762 children who allege abuse and were evaluated; It was determined that 84% (n=640) were girls and 16% (n=122) were boys, and the mean age of the cases was 12.88. It has been determined that victim children mostly apply from districts (51.8%) and nuclear families (51%). It was determined that almost all of the abuse suspects were male (98.4%) and single (89.9%), and the mean age was 27,1. It has been determined that girls are mostly exposed to boyfriend (13.2%) and boys are mostly exposed to peer and friend abuse (35.2%). It is evaluated that girls are exposed to domestic abuse significantly more than boys. It was evaluated that abuse events were mostly shared with parents (43.6%). It has been determined that domestic abuse incidents (50.7%) tend to recur more frequently than non-familial abuse incidents (34.1%), and the number of applications has increased over the years. It is seen that domestic abuse incidents are reported later than non-familial abuse incidents. Mostly, 43.2% of the victims described interfemoral intercourse or friction, 37% of the evaluated cases were examined, 4.2% of them did not need examination due to pregnancy, in the vaginal examination, most (60%) tears older than 10 days It was found that there was no finding in the anal examination (75.2%). Child sexual abuse; Among the types of abuse, it is the most difficult to detect and the most severe in terms of its consequences. Because children cannot define abuse due to various social and cultural pressures and lack of education, it is very difficult to reveal the events experienced. It is a fact that domestic abuse is much higher than it seems due to the difficulty of the applications. For this reason, child abuse is a social problem to be solved by bringing together many disciplines such as raising awareness of the child, parents and society, and strengthening state policies.