The Limits of the Medical Model in Research on Crime and Justice

• In Event: Criminalization and Medicalization

Abstract

Proponents of criminology’s ‘experimental turn’ often use medicine as a theoretical and substantive model to guide research on crime and justice. Many of the ethical principles that undergird medical research harmonize with those found in criminology. Yet this analogy has limits. We explore differences in medical and criminological research regarding what constitutes harm, on whom it is exacted, at what price, and for whose benefit. We consider professional, scientific and normative commitments that should encourage criminal justice practitioners and scholars to draw analogies beyond medicine. We propose a pluralistic ethical framework that draws on insights from fields such as law, social work and education.

Authors

• Johann Koehler, University of California, Berkeley

• Tobias Smith, University of California, Berkeley