Özet:

Cases of sexual abuse have been increasing worldwide in recent years. Studies show that children with disabilities are at higher risk of being victims of sexual abuse than other groups. Children who are victims of crime in the judicial system have difficulties in describing the events they experienced and making their voices heard. It is thought that especially disabled children experience this difficulty more intensely than other children. In cases of sexual abuse, there are generally no eyewitnesses other than the child and the perpetrator. This situation increases the importance of forensic interview with the child.  Forensic interviewing with mentally disabled children requires more time, attention, knowledge, and skills in other forensic interviews due to limited vocabulary, risk of being influenced, inability to concentrate for a long time, and difficulties in remembering and expressing. Equipping forensic interviewers with the necessary knowledge and skills on how to conduct forensic interviews with mentally disabled children victims of sexual abuse is extremely important in terms of successful interviews and access to complete and accurate information. In Türkiye, there is not yet a forensic interview protocol for vulnerable groups (children, disabled person etc). It is believed that this deficiency should be remedied immediately.

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