Medicalization of Criminality
Medicalization refers to the process of defining a specific condition in medical terms, expressing it in medical language and understanding it through the adoption of a medical framework. A sociological perspective is applied in order to analyse medicalization and is rendered as a social process to benefit society and improve the quality of life. The idea of medicalization in sociology originated within a distinct societal—political-historical context described by the dominance of professionalized (bio)medication. The notion explains the processes and effects of medicine’s link to social administration and restraint.
According to Zola (1983, p.295), “Medicalization is a process whereby more and more of everyday life has come under medical dominion, influence and supervision”. In addition, Erik Parens points out that medicalization is wrong “when the institution of medicine oversteps its proper limits”
Thus, medicalization entails understanding "newer and newer aspects of reality in medical terms and treating them as medical problems" [1] instead of social or political issues.
Origin of the Concept
Traditionally, medicalization flourished through doctors who had magnificent influence over people.[1] The aforementioned control gave them the capability to regulate people’s health and society, which is termed "medical imperialism". The idea of medicalization has its origins through the work of Michael Foucault and Ivan Illich. It was only in 1970's that the term entered academic and medical publications majorly through the works of Irving Zola, Peter Conrad and Thomas Szasz. [2] They argued that the development of medical influence into realms of daily life was encouraged by doctors as a force of social control.
Advantages of Medicalization
The benefits of medicalization are very apparent. The main one being that it considerably helps enhance the quality of life of any person as these conditions can be diagnosed and "treated" medically.[3] If we look at the intersection between the medical and legal worlds, the idea of 'Born Criminal' was introduced by Cesare Lombroso which recognised certain traits as being potentially dangerous, thus allowing anticipation and prediction of "violent criminal behaviour". [4]
Disadvantages - Medicalization or Overmedicalization?
However, sociological critics tend to recognize Medicalization as a negative form of social control used by the medical authority, often times manipulating the problems individuals have in order to study it 'medically'. In addition medicalization can also function to ‘exculpate individuals from responsibility because of being sick.’[5] When we view criminal behavior in medical terms it is very easy to "depoliticize and remove moral judgment from the behavior in question."[6] Hansen further discusses that medicalization of deviant traits allows the "accused to remain blameless", thus perpetuating a cycle of diagnosis and medical treatment. Schmitt points out that it is extremely essential to acknowledge and differentiate between the "blurred lines of medicalization and overmedicalization".[7] Medicalization can also be used as a means by the bio-medical industry to invade into people's everyday lives and stigmatize certain illnesses as well as profit from overmedicalization. Lastly, individuals can also face an identity crisis due to pre--conceived notions which can impact their overall growth.
Understanding Medicalization of Criminality
While looking at the study of crime and law enforcement, social control holds a central position and sociologists emphasise on techniques which can help in conformity and compliance to the rules of the society. [8] It was Lombroso who observed that physical characteristics could be directly correlated with psychological traits and concluded that tattoos indicated "primitive nature".[9] He further went on to conduct a thorough anthropometric study of convicts in Italian prisons which led him to conclude that a criminal could be distinguished from the non- criminal which he referred to as stigmata. [2] Hooton's work focused on explaining racial differences and how it can be used to understand criminal behavior in a person. [1] Instead of considering why people become 'bad' social control theorists have wondered by they continue to remain good. They have claimed that the reason for this is social and personal control and an individual is less likely to commit a crime if they stick to conventional activities and remain an active part of the community. Furthermore, Foucault explains the intersection with an example of how mental health and criminology feed into each other leading to a ‘psychiatrisation of criminal danger’:
"The more psychologically determined an act is found to be, the more its author can be considered legally responsible. The more the act is, so to speak, gratuitous and undetermined, the more it will tend to be excused. A paradox, then: the legal freedom of a subject is proven by the fact that his (sic) act is seen to be necessary, determined; his lack of responsibility proven by the fact that his act is seen to be unnecessary (Foucault quoted in McCallum 1997: 54)."
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Halfmann, D. (2012). Recognizing medicalization and demedicalization: Discourses, practices, and identities. Health, 16(2), 186-207. doi:doi: 10.1177/1363459311403947
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 A., & Kohli, S. (2012). Medicalization : A Growing Menance. DELHI PSYCHIATRY JOURNAL, 15(2), 255-259.
- ↑ Illich I. Medical Nemesis. London: Calder and Byers, 1975a.
- ↑ Mitjavila, M., & Mathes, P. (n.d.). (PDF) Labyrinths of crime medicalization - ResearchGate. Retrieved from https://www.researchgate.net/publication/313796565_Labyrinths_of_crime_medicalization
- ↑ Conrad, P., & Bergey, M. (2015). Medicalization: Sociological and Anthropological Perspectives. International Encyclopedia of the Social & Behavioral Sciences, 105-109. doi:10.1016/b978-0-08-097086-8.64020-5
- ↑ Conrad, P., Schneider, J. W., & Project Muse University Press Archival eBooks. (1992). Deviance and medicalization: From badness to sickness : With a new afterword by the authors (Expand ed.). Philadelphia: Temple University Press. Halfmann, D. (2012). Recognizing medicalization and demedicalization: Discourses, practices, and identities. Health, 16(2), 186-207. doi:doi: 10.1177/1363459311403947
- ↑ Melick, M., Steadman, H., & Cocozza, J. (1979). The Medicalization of Criminal behavior among Mental Patients. Journal of Health and Social Behavior, 20(3), 228-237. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/2136448
- ↑ Timmermans, S., & Gabe, J. (2002, September 16). Introduction: Connecting criminology and sociology of health and illness - Timmermans - 2002 - Sociology of Health & Illness - Wiley Online Library. Retrieved from https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/1467-9566.00306
- ↑ Bourke, Joanna (2007). Rape: A History From 1860 To The Present. London: Virago.