Last year, Turkish courts convicted 16,161 people for sexual abuse of children, the Birgun newspaper reported, citing data from the Ministry of Justice.

Courts ruled on 29,822 cases in 2021, a 33 percent increase over the previous year. There were acquittals in 6992 cases.

Sexual crimes against children have increased in recent years in Turkey. According to a study by the Turkish Statistical Institute (TÜİK), a total of 59,284 children were sexually abused between 2014 and 2017. The vast majority of the abused children were girls, but there were also 7,466 boys.