Curs

Medicolegal approach to sexual assault

Ersi Abacı Kalfoğlu
Forensic Medicine Department, Medical Faculty, İstanbul Yeni Yüzyıl University

The negative consequences of sexual violence and assault affect the victims for the rest of their lives. Proper medical as well as psychological care is essential for the survivors who have experienced a traumatic process. Following the victimization, one stop centers are established in various countries all over the world. The main idea is to stop the revictimization of the victim. Having this in mind we are in the process of the organization of a “Sexual Assault Crisis Center” for the first time in Turkey. This Center will take the active responsibility of history taking, medical-forensic examination, professional evidence collection by trained personnel, and detailed evidence analysis (DNA, drugs of abuse, trace evidence, etc.). In this way, the victims will not have to go to various institutions one after the other to bring the case to the legislative process. Care providers, law officers, and the legal system will be involved.An organized collaboration of different organizations is archived to the benefit of the sufferer until now. Furthermore, a training program for four different related parties, such as medical doctors, nurses, psychologists, and healthcare managers, has been developed in order to train other personnel for the sustainability of the project. The basic aim is to develop this first model as a prototype and contribute to its spreading throughout the country.