The Turkish Statistical Institute (TÜİK) has published statistics for 2025 on children who came to or were brought to security units.

In 2025, the number of incidents involving children who came to or were brought to security units decreased by 0.4% compared to 2024, reaching 609,959.

609,959 incidents

Children who came to or were brought to security units in 2025, down 0.4% from 2024.

Reasons for Contact with Security Units

Among the children involved in incidents at security units in 2025, 267,794 came as victims. A further 196,308 children were pushed into crime, meaning they were accused of committing an act defined as a crime. Additionally, 92,301 children were brought for the purpose of obtaining information as witnesses, and 18,554 were reported missing and later found. Another 28,251 children faced alleged misdemeanors (kabahat), and 6,751 came for other reasons outside these categories.

Based on TÜİK data, potentially the remaining 28.9% of crimes attributed to children pushed into crime consisted of other offenses.

Children Pushed into Crime

Among children pushed into crime in 2025, 41.6% were accused of wounding (yaralama), 14.7% of theft (hırsızlık), 9.7% of using, selling, or buying narcotic or stimulant substances, and 5.1% of threat (tehdit). These categories highlight the offenses attributed to children in this group.

Child Victims

Children who were victims constituted 43.9% of all children who came to or were brought to security units in 2025. Of the 267,794 victim children, 83.9% were victims of crimes, while 16.1% were victims of incidents requiring follow-up.

In 2025, 224,579 children came to or were brought to security units as crime victims. Among these child crime victims, 59.2% were victims of wounding, 10.3% of sexual offenses, 8.5% of crimes against family order, and 5% of threat. The remaining 17% were victims for other reasons.

It appears that victim children and children pushed into crime continued to constitute the two largest groups among all reasons for children coming to or being brought to security units in 2025.