Review the authors’ inductive theory as to why America is particularly amenable to medical strategies of social control and present your agreement or disagreement with their views

Apart from any particular form of deviance, the process of medicalization is a key portion of this course. For this essay do the following:

Present the basic points of medicalization (the movement from punishment to rehabilitation; the growing authority of the medical profession; moral neutrality).

Review the “bright” and the “dark” sides of the social consequences of medicalization (Chapter 9) and establish a personal position on medicalization in terms of the control of crime and deviance.

Review the authors’ inductive theory as to why America is particularly amenable to medical strategies of social control and present your agreement or disagreement with their views.Document Preview: 

Medicalization: Critique and Theoretical Meaning The Benefits of Medicalization Medicalization has a humanitarian foundation, and extends the “sick role” to a range of deviants, thereby promoting acceptance It is optimistic It offers the possibility of an end to some deviance through medicine It protects some groups from criminal penalties, e.g., diversion for drug addicts The Problems of Medicalization Medicalization limits traditional notions of personal responsibility It removes notions of evil from discourse about deviance, it negates morality and its basis in religion It brings professionals who use arcane science into the field of deviance, creating confusion for some Medicalization and Theory Medicalization and a Social Reaction Theory Medicalization shows the power of the middle class in redefining deviance The alleged neutrality of physicians shows the declining importance of religion and morality in definitions of deviance The sick role, sick deviance, has supplanted other definitions of deviance Medicalization and Theory What medicalization says about American Society Medicalization: Critique and Theoretical Meaning The Benefits of Medicalization Medicalization has a humanitarian foundation, and extends the “sick role” to a range of deviants, thereby promoting acceptance It is optimistic It offers the possibility of an end to some deviance through medicine It protects some groups from criminal penalties, e.g., diversion for drug addicts The Problems of Medicalization Medicalization limits traditional notions of personal responsibility It removes notions of evil from discourse about deviance, it negates morality and its basis in religion It brings professionals who use arcane science into the field of deviance, creating confusion for some Medicalization and Theory Medicalization and a Social Reaction Theory Medicalization shows the power of the middle class in redefining deviance