Sexual Assault in Turkish Criminal Law in Feminist Perspective

Sexual violence topic has been discussed in turkey by the means of unfair court decisions during therecent years. victims of sexual crimes complain about the judicial procedures being traumatizing andthe processes resulting in exculpation or nolle prosequi.despite the positive improvements in terms of sexual crimes with the amendments in turkish criminallaw in 2005, the reasons why the judicial processes and decisions are so controversial in publicopinion, should be investigated.feminist theoreticians believe that violence against women, especially sexual violence, whichis based on patriarchy, is one of the means men use to dominate and exercise control on women. so itcan be considered that, this problem is more political than juridical or criminal. so, the awareness ofviolence being the result of unequal relations between men and women, sexuality and the differencebetween sexuality and sexual violence being evaluated by a masculine view and that the judicialauthorities cannot be free of those common social values; should be taken as an important startingpoint of these discussions.the article discusses the reasons of unfair and gendered comments, applications andevaluations executed for the sexual assault crime cases despite the legal improvements in turkishcriminal law while focusing on the elements of the crime.