2019 witnessed over 160 thousand incidents involving a juvenile pushed into crime

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The Turkish Statistical Institute (TurkStat) has released its "Juvenile Statistics Received into Security Unit" for the period of 2015-2019.

According to the statistics shared by the Institute, juveniles received into security units were involved in 511 thousand 247 incidents in 2019.

In these incidents, 46.1 percent of juveniles were victims, 32.9 percent of juveniles allegedly committed an act defined as a crime in the law (pushed into crime), 15.1 percent were witnesses, 3.4 percent were lost (found) and 2.5 percent of juveniles were received into security units for other reasons.

* Distribution of selected reception reasons by years

Over 500 thousand incidents involving juveniles

The number of incidents involving juveniles received into security units was 511 thousand 247 in 2019, marking an increase of 5.8 percent when compared to the figures announced in 2018.

50.1 percent of these juveniles were in the 15-17 age group and 25.2 percent were in the 12-14 age group while 24.7 percent of juveniles were under the age of 11. In 2019, 65.4 percent of juveniles received into security units were male, while 34.6 percent were female.

* The number of incidents involving juveniles received into security unit by sex

Most juveniles pushed into crime involved in assault

Juveniles received into security units were involved in 168 thousand 250 incidents as they had been pushed into crime.

31.7 percent of these juveniles were charged with assault, 25.6 percent of them were charged with theft, 8.1 percent were charged with the opposition to the Passport Law, 6.9 percent with the migrant smuggling and 4.6 percent of juveniles were charged with using, selling and purchasing of drugs.

* Juveniles pushed into crime by type of offense being charged (percent), 2019

Most juveniles received into security units as victims

In total of 235 thousand 931 juveniles received as victims into security units, 87.5 percent of juveniles were victims of crime and 12.5 percent of juveniles were victims of followed incident.

It was observed that 53.8 percent of juvenile victims of crime were male and 46.2 percent of them were female and 56.2 percent of juvenile victims of followed incident were male and 43.8 percent of them were female.

They were were mostly victims of assault

57.6 percent of 206 thousand 498 juvenile victims of crime were victims of assault, 15.2 percent of them were victims of sexual offenses and 11 percent of them were victims of offenses against family order.

Furthermore, 3.5 percent of them were victims of threat, 2.7 percent of them were victims of kidnapping and 2.1 percent of them were victims of theft.

* Juvenile victims of crime by victimization type (percent), 2019

(SD)