Incidents involving children surge by 20 pct: TÜİK

ANKARA

The Turkish Statistical Institute (TÜİK) has revealed alarming statistics regarding incidents involving children in 2022, with the number of such incidents surpassing 600,000, marking a significant increase of 20.5 percent compared to the previous year.

Among the incidents recorded, 259,106 children were sent to security units as victims, while 206,853 were found to be driven into criminal activities.

Additionally, 100,490 children sought information, 16,499 were reported missing, 12,684 were allegedly involved in misdemeanors and 6,122 were brought in for reasons not categorized in the mentioned groups.

Moreover, 37.8 percent of the children associated with criminal activities were reported to be injured, with 25.2 percent involved in theft, 4.5 percent linked to drug-related offenses (such as using, selling or buying drugs or stimulants), 4.2 percent charged with violating passport laws and 4.1 percent facing threats.

Of the children who arrived or were brought to security units as victims, 89.8 percent were recorded as victims of crimes, while 10.1 percent were identified as victims of incidents requiring further investigation and follow-up.

Further examination of the data showed that out of the 232,739 children who arrived at security units as victims of crime, 58.5 percent had suffered injuries, 13.7 percent were victims of sexual crimes, 8.7 percent experienced crimes against family order, 4.8 percent faced threats and the remaining 14.3 percent fell under other reasons not specified in the report.