Mapping the Turkish Republican Notion of Childhood and Juvenile Delinquency: The Story of Children’s Courts in Turkey 1940–;1990

Abstract

This chapter tells the story of the introduction of children’s courts into the Turkish Republic in 1979. By exploring the debates surrounding the formation of a distinct and separate justice system for children, it aims to provide insights into the way juvenile delinquency as well as the conception of childhood that underpins it were understood and defined in the Turkish Republican context. After delving into the possible reasons for the reluctance of Turkish policymakers and Turkish society more broadly to establish children’s courts before 1979, the chapter examines the trial and incarceration of a British child by a Turkish adult criminal court in 1972, the so-called “Timothy D. Incident”, which served as a catalyst for accentuating the differences between Turkish and Western perceptions of and attitudes toward childhood in general and juvenile delinquency in particular.