The Justice Ministry has released the 2025 Justice Statistics, revealing a heavy burden on the judicial system in Turkey and more than 330,000 children caught in the judicial grip.
Data shows that in 2025, prosecutors faced nearly 13.3 million files, including those transferred from previous years. The number of suspects in these files is over 16.7 million people.
A total of 22.9 million criminal allegations were made. In other words, one out of every five people was a suspect according to the state in 2025.
Of the 13.3 million case files, 6 million were opened within 2025. Crimes against property, crimes against liberty, and crimes against honor ranked in the top three among investigation files under the Turkish Penal Code (TCK).
Number of investigations rose by 57%
The number of investigation files arriving at prosecutor offices increased by 57% in a decade.
While the number of files reaching the chief public prosecutor offices was 7.4 million in 2016, it rose to 11.6 million in 10 years with an increase rate of 57.7%.
In investigations conducted by prosecutor offices, 48.4% of the 11.67 million files, including those transferred from previous years, were resolved. Decisions of non-prosecution took first place with 48.5%. Public lawsuits were filed for 36.8%. This was followed by other decisions at 14.7%.
Workload of penal courts
There was also an increase in the workload of penal courts in 2025. Some 3.8 million case files came before the penal courts. This number was 2.4 million in 2016. The file load of penal courts increased by 58.4% in 10 years. A total of 3.9 million people stood trial in 2025.
These courts resolved 3.4 million cases. They issued convictions in 43.4% and acquittals in 20.3%. Additionally, decisions to defer the announcement of the verdict were made in 21.6%, while other decisions accounted for 14.7%.
The total number of files resolved in penal courts in 2025 was recorded as 2.3 million.
Average duration in penal courts is 248 days
The duration of trials was also noteworthy. In 2025, the average processing time for a file was 155 days in chief public prosecutor offices, 248 days in penal courts, and 243 days in civil courts. The longest average duration was seen in enforcement and bankruptcy offices with 883 days.
During the same period, the average duration in tax courts rose from 139 days to 152 days, while it decreased from 97 days to 74 days in the court of jurisdictional disputes.
Violence against women: More than 1 million decisions
The increase in preventive measure decisions issued under Law No. 6284 as part of the fight against violence against women continued.
In 2025, the number of people given preventive measures was 1.04 million, and the number of measures was 1.48 million. The number of people given protective measures was 15,975, and the number of measures was recorded as 22,618.
The most common decision in preventive measures was the order not to engage in words or behaviors aimed at violence or fear. Under this heading, 480,299 measure decisions were issued.
This was followed by 379,422 decisions ordered to not approach the protected persons, or their residence, school, and workplace.
Over 330,000 faced investigations
In 2025, the number of files belonging to children dragged into crime at the investigation stage in chief public prosecutor offices was recorded as 332,648. The number of children in these files was 330,496.
Regarding conviction decisions for children in penal courts, prison sentences were given in 28,255 files, while judicial fines were given in 21,362 files.
Gender gap
Human resources data for the judicial organization was also included in the report. As of 2025, the total number of judges was 18,386 and the number of prosecutors was 8,518. However, gender equality could not be achieved in the judiciary.
It was observed that female judges only outnumbered male judges in the Court of Cassation and judicial first instance courts. While 47% of judges in the Court of Cassation are men and 53% are women, this ratio is 47.6% to 52.4% in judicial first instance courts. In contrast, only 24.4% of judges in the Constitutional Court, 44.3% in the Council of State, 37.9% in regional judicial courts, 32.9% in regional administrative courts, 31% in administrative and tax courts, and only 20.8% in the central organization are women.
The situation is more unequal in prosecutor offices. Only 3.6% of chief public prosecutors are women. Only 21.2% of public prosecutors consist of women. Additionally, there are no women in the prosecutor offices of the regional judicial courts, the Council of State, or the Court of Cassation.
On the other hand, the number of lawyers in Turkey rose to 206,678; this consisted of 106,663 male and 100,015 female lawyers.
Click to read the full report [Turkish]
(HA/VK)
