Public Attitude to Crime and Justice in Turkey: İstanbul Sample

• In Event: Public Confidence in the Criminal Justice System

Abstract

In recent years crime rates showed a significant increase in Turkey. As a result of this increase trend, the discourse of the main stream media and conservative politics defended more and more forceful punishment of criminals, especially in violent and extreme forms of crimes such as rape of children. As being the major determinant of public perceptions on crime, more punitive criminal justice system rhetoric of the media and politics raised a debate among all society.
This study aimed to investigate the opinions of public about “how to punish a crime, harshness in the punishment, trust in criminal justice services and fear of crime”. In order to achieve this aim a questionnaire will be applied to a sample of 250 adult participants who are living in different zones of İstanbul. As the research still continues as part of a project and data collection is not finished yet, final findings will be available at the end of the project on August 2019; so the results of study will be ready for the presentation at the conference time.

Authors

• Can Çalıcı, İstanbul University Cerrahpasa Institute of Forensics Sciences

• Neylan Ziyalar, İstanbul University Cerrahpasa Institute of Forensics Sciences