Medicalization of Crime and Deviance; An Introduction to Critical Discourse Analysis of Clinical Approach to Delinquency problem

A clinical approach to crime, offender, victim, and criminal justice as a model of criminal policy has a unique and impeccable position before most of the criminologists. In the past and present criminology literature, the clinical approach is recognized to have the same meaning as the concepts and standards of human rights such as preventing recidivism and social deviations, observing the human dignity of offenders, supporting the victims’ rights, rehabilitation of criminal convicts, fair trial,corrective function of punishment and aligning the offender’s interests with the supportive benefits of the society.While challenging the clinical approach in delinquency field through redefining it, using medicalization concept, this essay tries to show when, where, by whom, with which methods and principles and through what claims-making, the process of medicalization of crime and deviance has been done, and what results or outcomes have been or will be brought by this process for the medical profession, offenders, victims, criminologists, those who lay down criminal policies, the government and the people, who all are the claims makers.The result of medicalization process is the power to manage the criminology and criminal policy grounds in the favor of claim-making group – the reward which the medical profession has been benefited so far.