Victims of human rights violations perpetrated by the police and gendarmerie in Turkey continue to face an entrenched culture of impunity. Their chances of securing justice are remote in a criminal justice system in which institutions and personnel regularly treat the interests of the state and its officials as ultimately in greater need of protection than those of individual citizens. The institutionalized failings of the system are compounded by it being under-resourced and in need of overhaul and reform. Alongside an overburdened criminal justice system that lacks independence, in Turkey there is still no independent body which can impartially and effectively investigate human rights violations by state agents.