Evaluation of sociodemographic, clinical and crime-related features in forensic psychiatric facts sent to Gaziantep University Forensic Medicine Department Polyclinic

Intoduction and Aim: In this study, it is aimed to examine the sociodemographic characteristics of the cases sent to Gaziantep University Faculty of Medicine, Department of Forensic Medicine by the forensic authorities, the reasons for their referral, their psychiatric diagnoses, the diagnostic scales used, the history of substance abuse and repeated crime, the consultations, the medical opinions resulting from the evaluation, and the characteristics of the crime. Materials and Methods: Our study is a retrospective, descriptive study in which the patient files for which forensic reports were examined. The universe of the study consists of 1444 cases who were referred to Gaziantep University Faculty of Medicine Forensic Medicine Polyclinic and met the inclusion criteria and prepared a report between 01.01.2014-31.12.2020. The medical files, document records and forensic reports of the cases were examined retrospectively. The relationship between diagnosis and crime types, education, residence areas, immigration status, age groups, reasons for sending, sending institutions, diagnoses, medical opinions, drug use, and repeated delinquency were examined. Descriptive statistics are given as numbers or percentages for categorical variables. Relationships between categorical variables were tested with the chi-square test. SPSS 22.0 package program was used in the analysis. P<0.05 was considered significant. Findings: Of the cases included in the study, 80.2% were under criminal law (n=1158), 19.8% were under civil law (n=286), 62.5% (n=902) were the perpetrators, and 17.3%(n=250) of the victims were evaluated, 64.1% (n=925) were adults, 35.9% (n=519) were children, 75.5% (n=1090) were men, % 24.2% (n=349) were female, the highest number of cases were between the ages of 18-35 (n=721, 49.9%), the least cases were between the ages of 60 and 35.5% (n=433) ) were involved in a crime more than once, 65.5%(n=821) of them were involved in a crime for the first time, 53.9%(n=778) of those residing in regions with low socioeconomic level, 60.5%(n=874) of those registered in Gaziantep, 2.5% (n=36) of those who came from Syria, (64.9% n=764) the most crowded group is consisted of primary and secondary school graduates, the least frequent group according to education level is (2.8% n=34) university graduates, the highest rate of cases is about criminal capacity (n=877, 60.7%), the most common rate of cases is about crime of injury (n=309, 21.4%), then committed against the commodity crimes (n=290, 20.1%), followed by sexual crimes (n=288, 19.9%), terrorist crimes (n=25, 1.7%) were committed the least. The highest number of cases(n=604, %41,8) were healthy, then mental retardation (n=185, 12.8%) followed by schizophrenia and other psychotic disorders (n=139, 9.6%) and bipolar disorder (n=126, 8.7%) ) diagnoses, the least diagnosis was ADHD (n=11, 0.8%), the most common accompanying diagnosis was personality disorder (n=18, 40%), 25%(n=121) of 484 were found to be drug-stimulant positive and 75% (n=363) negative, 43% (n=123) of the civil law cases were within the scope of TMK 432, 15% (n=43) were mentally ill. It was determined that 19% (n=55) of them did not have a pathology that prevents marriage or sexual intercourse, and 7% (n=21) were evaluated in terms of tutelage. Conclusion: The process of reporting the mental states of individuals while committing a crime, being a victim of a crime or using their civil rights in legal processes, points to be considered in the examination and suggestions for the prevention of crime were discussed. The fact that the number of studies in the literature in which all cases referred to forensic medicine are evaluated holistically is negligible, which is important for the evaluation of our study. Keywords: Forensic Medicine, Forensic Psychiatry, Crime, Mental pathology