Abstract:

Child delinquency has been increasing in our country as well as in many countries of the world.Childintelligence, abilities, family's social environment and life conditions are the factors which affect thechild delinquency.According to the Article 31 of The Turkish Penal Code, children,at the age of over12 and under 15, who commit a crime should be evaluated whether their ability had developed tounderstand the legal perception and and consequences of the guilt. In this study, children who weretaken to The Forensic Medicine Department of Medical Faculty,Pamukkale University and DenizliCouncil of Forensic Medicine Department for medicolegal reporting between January 2006-December2007 were evaluated. 84.9 % of the cases were male.It was found that most of the children who wereclaimed to have committed a crime were at the age of 14. 67.3 % of the crime were against thepersonal property and most of these were thefts.We noticed that 25.4 % of the cases were therepeated crime ones.It is examined that in 93.2 % of the cases that the ability of perceptivity of legalmeaning and consequences of the crime in which they involved and orientation of the behaviorsabout this act were developed enough.The results were evaluated in comparison with the medicalliterature on this issue.

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