Who is Responsible When a Child Psychiatrist's Advice for a Counseling Measure in Forensic Cases Is Ignored?


Aktas H., OGUTLU H., ESİN İ. S., Dursun O. B.

DUSUNEN ADAM-JOURNAL OF PSYCHIATRY AND NEUROLOGICAL SCIENCES, cilt.31, sa.2, ss.205-208, 2018 (ESCI) identifier identifier

Özet

Children who are neglected or abused, whose physical, mental, moral, social, or emotional development and personal safety are at risk, must be protected. Precautionary reports can be prepared about children for whom supervision has been decided. In this case, the court's ignoring of a child psychiatrist's advice for a counseling measure and the later occurrence of sexual abuse in an adolescent girl is discussed. G.D., a 17-year-old girl, is referred to our clinic by the public prosecutor with the request for a report on the development of the girl's competence to understand the legal significance and consequences of sexual abuse. We found that she had been referred to our clinic as a forensic case two years previously because of accusations that she had stolen gold and money from her neighbors at the request of her friends. It was found that the patient was at risk of sexual abuse. In the forensic report that we had prepared two years ago, it was suggested to monitor her behavior carefully as it was forming a basis for sexual abuse; hence precaution about this risk should be taken. Therefore, the case should be followed from the perspective of abuse, and a counseling measure was recommended by court decision. But as far as we learned from the family, neither had been applied. In our case, failure to apply the required counseling measure resulted in sexual abuse. There seems to be a need for bilateral control mechanisms between court and mental health workers for the application of measures mentioned in child protection law.