Examining risk factors and medicolegal evaluation results of juvenile delinquents

Objective: This study aimed to determine risk factors of the criminal behavior, medico-legal evaluation procedures and evaluation results among a group of teens that were referred to a university hospital for forensic evaluation in accordance with Turkish Penal Code article 31/2 and 32 by legal forces. Method: This study was carried out by retrospective examination of the records of the children who were referred to the Dokuz Eylül University Medical Faculty Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Department for medico-legal examination and had a forensic report after the examination between the dates January 2010 and December 2018. Sociodemographic, clinical, psychometric and medico-legal examination data of the cases were collected. Resuls: 89.9% (n=98) of the cases were boys and 10.1% (n=11) were girls. Mean age of the cases during the medico-legal examination was 15.17±1.63. The percentage of quitting the school is 51.4%. In this study, it is determined that 78.9% of the cases had at least one psychiatric diagnosis before the event of the crime (the most common is mental retardation (60.6%), conduct disorder (33.9%), attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (24.8%)) and 21.1% of the cases had at least one psychiatric diagnosis after the event (the most common is depressive disorder (20.2%)). It was found that the most committed crime is sexual abuse and the most common crime group is the crimes against property. According to crime type, comparing to crimes against life and body/sexual inviolability, in crimes against property and other crimes group, there were statistically significant higher rates of elementary school or below education levels, having dropped out of the school, previous crime history, mental retardation and conduct disorder diagnosis before the event, fathers without a job. In those who committed a crime against life/sexual inviolability (35.8%), rate of the psychiatric diagnosis after the event were significantly higher than others (7.1%). Conclusion: Socioeconomic difficulties in the families of the juvenile offenders, low education level in both families and the children and frequency of intellectual disability and psychiatric diagnosis in the cases are remarkable. In order to reduce juvenile delinquency, it was considered that children at risk should be identified and appropriate preventive and supportive measures should be taken. Keywords: crime, juvenile delinquency, risk factors, forensic psychiatry