Download A general pardon including the offenders who had been against

A UNIQUE STUDY: DOES GENERAL AMNESTY SOLELY AGAINST COMMON
CRIMES INCREASE THE NUMBER OF FORENSIC APPLICATIONS TO
EMERGENCY SERVICE?
ABSTRACT
Introduction: Seeking both justice and pragmatism in strategies of amnesties against
common crimes have never been studied. A great majority of any population would think a
nonpolitical amnesty might be impressive rather than logical since it protects minority versus
majority.
Materials and methods: A retrospective study was planned in an education and research
hospital to evaluate the effects of a nonpolitical amnesty. Patients’ files (n:1137, mean
age:29.83 years) with forensic admissions between 01.01.1991 and 12.31.2010 of 20 years,
divided into two decades as the initial 10 years without amnesties (Group-1) and the
following 10 years with amnesties and rewritten laws for global adaptation (Group-2), were
compared. All patients with forensic based injury (FBI) with at least one complaint of strike,
stab wound or gunshot were evaluated. Non-forensic emergency (NFE) cases (n:36366) were
also noted for control. Patients without emergency complaints, who did not belong to neither
FBI nor NFE, were excluded. Age, gender, application time, mortality and type of FBI were
statistically analyzed using chi-square and Fisher exact tests.
Results: The percentage of forensic applications, degree of crime, rate of female victims, and
timing (day time) of the crime deteriorated in a statistically significant manner in the second
decade, however the increased rate of mortality and 2.13 years older age of the victims did not
reach the level of significance.
Conclusion: Amnesty solely against common crimes was not in favour of peace.
Keywords: amnesty, crime, emergency, forensic
INTRODUCTION
Peace versus justice is a real debate for all populations. Crime and its consequences
and results of its trauma have always been studied unfortunately only in regard to medicine
worldwide and gained more attention than before [1-3]. A great majority of any population
would think that a general amnesty might be impressive rather than logical since it protects a
minority versus majority. There have been conflicts whether issues to establish general
amnesties increased the number of criminal affairs and we aimed to answer the dilemma in
the light of statistics. A general pardon including the offenders who had been against
government is a political choice of concern, which has well-known consequences in favour of
peace [4-10]. However, amnesty for infamous (nonpolitical) crimes, both simple and major,
can damage public conscience. Since documented amnesties worldwide in the near and past
history did not contain pure nonpolitical offences, it could have never been studied whether a
pure nonpolitical pardon would rise criminal affairs in a population [6-11]. Although being a
European country; and because of antidemocratic laws written during years of military coups,
which defend goverment against citizens instead of defending humans against goverment,
consecutive pardons usually caused a mass liberation of only tough and nonpolitical criminals
probably for a last and ultimate time in the Republic of Turkey, especially in the near past.
There has been always a debate whether both those criminals and the normal
population benefit if prisoners are released, since most of them return to prison in a short
period of time because of new crimes committed against innocent citizens. A peaceful
transition period may or may not be recommended to public according to scientific results.
A retrospective study was planned in an education and research hospital located in
Istanbul, which is the most crowded city of Turkey with almost 20 millions of city dwellers,
to evaluate the real effect of such a nonpolitical amnesty on a population to answer the
rightful or unjust speculations of conscience by a scientific way. Haseki Education and
Research State Hospital, located in one of the most haunted vicinities of İstanbul, provided a
reliable, alive and cosmopolitan social laboratory and the present study seems to be a unique
one because of many aspects according to our wide and multilingual search in the literature.
General amnesty for infamous crimes, which had been declared in 12.22.2000 and the new
Turkish Criminal Code which had been rewritten and executed in 06.01.2005 according to
European Union adjustment laws for global adaptation resulted in releasing of more than
200.000 nonpolitical criminals consisting of mainly murderers, deforcers, rapists, and robbers
who in fact had been sentenced for a longer duration of punishment time according to the
previous Turkish Criminal Code.
MATERIALS and METHODS
A retrospective study was planned in an education and research hospital to
evaluate the real effect of a nonpolitical amnesty to answer speculations of conscience by a
scientific way. Patients’(n:1137,mean age:29.83 years) files with forensic admissions and
bookkeeping entries of the emergency service as hard copies in addition to computer records
were the mainstays of the data collection between the dates of 01.01.1991 and 12.31.2010.
The documentation of 20 years, divided into two decades as the initial 10 years without
amnesties (Group-1) and the following 10 years with amnesties and rewritten laws for global
adaptation (Group-2), were compared with each other using some selected parameters. All
patients with forensic based injury (FBI) with at least one complaint of strike, stab wound and
gunshot were evaluated. Non-forensic emergency (NFE) cases (n:36366) were also noted for
control. Patients without emergency complaints,who did not belong to neither FBI nor NFE,
were excluded.
The rationale of the evaluation of the selected two decades was to provide a farreaching observation period insofar as to be devoid of defaults. The degree of violence was
deemed as high if it had been committed by with stab or firearm or both, since incidence of
violence has been measured as the total count of the crime events with any arm per a given
period worldwide by investigators. Age, gender, application time, type of FBI and mortality
were retrospectively and statistically analyzed using chi-square and Fisher exact tests.
Since it is a retrospective evaluation, the local ethic committe approval has not been
taken. But all patients applying our emergency service sign an informed consent form (also
written in English if necessary) which also includes that their data could be used for scientific
reasons in future, in addition to items of medical outcomes and malpractice.
RESULTS
The mean age of the patients, who constituted the forensic victims of both groups
(1137 patients) was 29.83 years and there was no difference between the groups in regard to
age. The statistical data of the patients have been listed in Tables 1-5.
The percentage of forensic applications, the degree of the crime (more with tools), the
rate of female victims (crime on females inreased), and the timing (more in day time) of the
crime changed in a statistically significant manner, however the increased rate of mortality
and 2.1 years older age of the victims of the second decade did not reach the levels of
significance. Although stabbing or bullet injuries have statistically increased in number in the
second decade, mortality did not statistically increase in the latter. However, a small rise was
noticed in the mortality rate in Group-2 (3.97%) when compared to Group-1 (3.53%) as
expected. The degree of violence was deemed as high if it had been committed by stab or
firearm. There was not any significant difference between the groups in regard to age despite
the mean age of the victims of the second group had been 2.13 years higher than the former.
We think that the small age difference was because of the changed population pyramid of
Turkey from younger to older type within two decades. Loss of significance in the mortality
rate can be attributed and speculated to the usage of penetrating tools onto extremities for
arrogation crimes committed by the rotters.
DISCUSSION
Unfortunately there are 3 types of amnesties which do not represent the one (de facto for
common crimes only) we had studied:
1. Illegimative, inclusive amnesty (blanket amnesty against every crime since it covers
everybody such as Chilean amnesty after Pinochet)
2. Locally legitimized, limited immunity (political amnesty such as Khmer Rouge in
Cambodia)
3. Internationally legitimized immunity (excluding crimes against humanity as well as
torture or genocide,etc)
Our study seems to be a unique one adding a 4th category to amnesty subgroups
and their results to the literature. According to our results; both justice and peace were
violated by a series of amnesty and adaptation based rewritten codes against common
crimes. According to the literature; blanket and other types of amnesties have resulted in
better outcomes as expected according to publications [2,5-7]. Death penalty and pregnant
women in prisons had been the rationale for some amnesties [12,13]. The preparations of
the turkish amnesty in 12.22.2000 had also begun in regard to pregnant women in prisons.
One may think that why we did not mention about the results between the years of 2011
and 2014 which seems to be a limitation of the study. The rate of crime still continues to
increase though insignificantly, however the population of the city has increased with a
rate which had never been before and poulation characteristic of the city has also changed
extraordinarily in the last years especially because of almost 2 millions Syrian refugees in
Istanbul, which deserves another similar study. Either the poor homeless immigrants with
many children usually are the victims or committers of the crime is a tough question to
answer. Hence, we did not mention the new data related to the present study because of
the mass migration from the Middle East to the city during the last years. Unfortunately;
amnesty programs do not reduce undocumented immigration to other countries [14].
Another limitation of the study was its retrospective manner, which had resulted in
analysis of only some rough parameters (unfortunately less than necessary).
In conclusion; the romanticism of an amnesty, solely against common crimes, was
not in favour of peace. It can be speculated that even a blanket (inclusive) amnesty which
might have covered also political prisoners, with their more intellectual background when
compared to other criminals, would have resulted in a better outcome for the welfare of
the population. We think that the results of the present study in reaching all related
scientists would be interesting and helpful not only for medical scientists but also even for
the social investigators.
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Table-1: Forensic versus nonforensic applications
Criminal affairs
Non-criminal
Total
(patients with at
(nonforensic) total
least one of the
emergency
following: B,S,F)
applications
Group-1
255
9563
9818
Group-2
882
26803
27685
Total
1137
36366
B: beaten up without stab or firearm, S: penetrating tools such as stab, F: firearm
Chi square (with Yates correction)=8.341, p=0.0039 (statistically very significant)
Chi square (without Yates correction)=8.54, p=0.0035 (statistically very significant)
Table-2: Degree of the crime (violence)
Beaten (B) up
At least stabbing
Total
without any
(S), firearm (F) or
penetrating tool
both
Group-1
221
34
255
Group-2
703
179
882
Total
924
213
1137
Fischer exact: p=0.0136 (P<0.5), B: beaten up only, S: stabbing, F: firearm
Table-3: Mortality
Group-1
Group-2
Total
Death
Alive
9
246
35
847
44
1093
Fischer exact: p=0.8551 (P>0.5)
Total
255
882
1137
Table-4: Gender preference of the criminal
Group-1
Group-2
Total
male
female
224
31
643
239
867
270
Fischer exact: p<0.0001 (statistically very significant)
Total
255
882
1137
Table-5: Timing of the crime
Group-1
Group-2
Total
24:00-08:00
08:00-24:00
239
16
785
97
1024
113
Fischer exact: p=0.0317, p<0.05
Total
255
882
1137