Three out of four people living in İstanbul do not feel safe in the city, and one out of every five is exposed to at least one type of violence, a study has revealed.

Study on violence in Istanbul - 25 / 07 / 2008 09:07

Three out of four people living in İstanbul do not feel safe in the city, and one out of every five is exposed to at least one type of violence, a study conducted by the İstanbul Chamber of Commerce (ITO) has revealed.

The study, titled "Violence in Istanbul and its Sociological Background," was announced by ITO Chairman Murat Yalcintas at a press conference yesterday.

The research was conducted in Istanbul's 32 districts with the participation of 2,150 individuals, which included 105 convicts and 50 street children.

Yalcintas stated that violence was grouped into three categories in the study -- physical, psychological and economic.

He said 93.5 percent of respondents think they will be subjected to some form of violence in Istanbul, noting that 29 percent of the respondents linked the existence of violence in the city to lack of education, 25.3 percent to unemployment and 15.8 percent to psychological factors.

Referring to the research results regarding convicts, he said 60.8 percent of the convicts regretted having committed crime.

Furthermore, 30.8 percent of convicts said they had no other option but to commit crime, while 47.6 percent reported that they did not find the punishments sufficiently deterrent.

Yalcintas noted that 96 percent of the street children do not consider anyone a role model, while 36 percent of them responded that they desire nothing.

Violence among Istanbul's most serious problems

M. Teyfik Goksu, the assistant project coordinator at the GENAR Research Company, which conducted the study, said the information revealed by the research about the perception of violence in Istanbul should make everyone think.

He noted that problems such as traffic jams, unemployment and lack of education are among the main problems of Istanbul; however, he said, the preponderance of violence has recently joined these problems.

Goksu stated that 80 percent of female respondents living in Istanbul do not feel safe in the city, while 20.1 percent reported that they had been exposed to violence.

The research showed that 14 percent of women living in the city were subjected to sexual harassment, while 75.4 percent of all the respondents said honor killings were a result of ignorance.

Goksu said the existence of violence is a reality in Istanbul, emphasizing that this should prompt officials to take measures to curb acts of violence.

Head of the Crime Prevention and Supervision Strategies Center Sevil Atasoy said there must be a perpetrator, a victim and a venue for a crime to be committed, emphasizing that this triangle needs to be broken to prevent crime from occurring.

Atasoy remarked that his center will work in coordination with the ITO in the coming period on a victimization survey in a pilot zone to explore the profiles of victims and venues where crimes are committed.

Istanbul Deputy Governor Fikret Kasapoglu said the police department has conducted studies on the crime-violence issue over the past several years; however, he noted, the efforts of police need to be combined with action by local administrations to effectively prevent crime.

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