VISUALIZATION OF A SOCIAL PROBLEM: SPATIO-TEMPORAL ANALYSIS OF SEXUAL ASSAULTS IN TURKEY.

Our study aims to visualize the social problem of sexual offences in Turkey. We utilized GIS to investigate the spatio-temporal distributions of reported sexual offence incidents, including allegations of rape that are published online by Milliyet (1997-2008), a leading national newspaper in Turkey. Density mappings of sexual offences and rape-related reports indicate that these criminal acts mostly originate from, and agglomerate in, the metropolitan and more developed areas of the country. Geographically, the cases are concentrated in Turkey's western and southern coastal cities. Another finding is that 63 percent of sexual-offence victims are 19 years old and younger; within this age group, 60 percent of the victims reside in metropolitan areas, and many of them are students. Almost 80 percent of the total incidents occurred between people who had already known each other or shared enclosed space together, such as persons involved in instructor-student and/or employer-employee relationships. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]