Medicalization can be defined as a process through which problems affecting individuals are diagnosed medically and treated by using medical interventions. Therefore, the medicalization approach to deviance involves diagnosing and following treatment of individuals whose behaviors are considered deviant. This strategy can be applied to particular types of deviation, including those of physical deformities and blemishes of individual characters, such as physical or social disabilities, mental disorders, sexual orientation, and others.
In the frames of the medicalization approach, deviance is regarded as an illness requiring medical intervention. Then, certain types of deviance, their predictors, and consequences can be explained by using medical terms and theories. Medicalization of deviance is a part of a broader historical trend of using more humanitarian responses to various types of deviance. Therefore, the cases of morally condemned conduct or appearance come under medical jurisdiction, complicating the issues of defining and responding to deviance. Constructing deviance as illness, medical researchers change the moral status of individuals whose behaviors are regarded as deviant. Regardless of the fact whether their deviant behaviors are explained with a genetic basis or a combination of social and environmental factors, criminals, drug and alcohol-addicted individuals are referred to as victims requiring medical interventions and social support.