5.5d Medicalization

Medicalization is another response to deviant behaviors and attitudes. Medicalization is the process by which deviance comes under the purview of medical authority rather than or in addition to legal authority. Therefore, deviance can also be socially constructed as a medical condition. In some cases, medical intervention may be wanted and helpful. However, medical social control seeks to end behavior defined as deviant (Conrad, 1979).

Same-gender sex is an example of behavior that has been medicalized and demedicalized. The American Psychiatric Association’s professional guide to mental health conditions, the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM), listed same-gender sex (as homosexuality) as a mental illness until 1973. The medicalization of same-gender sex was intended to challenge legal sanctions for this behavior (Conrad & Angell, 2004).

However, medicalization introduced new harms like conversion therapy, which has included talk therapy, electric shock treatment, and surgical castration (Ducharme, 2023). Conversion therapy tries to change a person’s sexual orientation, gender identity, or gender expression. Still, people who experienced it “had nearly twice the odds of lifetime suicidal ideation, 75% increased odds of planning to attempt suicide, and 88% increased odds of a suicide attempt with minor injury compared with sexual minorities who did not” have this experience (Blosnich et al., 2020, see also Green et al., 2020).

Numerous professional organizations, including the American Psychological Association, the American Medical Association, and the World Health Organization, have denounced conversion therapy (GLAAD, 2025). They do not recommend conversion therapy. However, some medical, psychological, and other therapists continue to treat same-gender sex with conversion therapy.

Photo 5.14

Same-Gender Sex Has Been Medicalized and Demedicalized

Other behaviors are still both criminalized and medicalized. U.S. law treats drug addiction and substance use disorders as crimes. Still, many people who have researched addiction and work with people with substance use disorders argue that a medical or psychological approach is more appropriate.