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Criminalization of Care

Drug Testing Pregnant Patients

Bibliographic Data

ID2316810
AuthorsKathryn Mccabe (0000-0002-2526-5561, University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, IN, USA, corresponding author)
Year2022
Volume63
Issue2
Pages162-176
Publication date2022-06-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueJournal of Health and Social Behavior (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0022-1465 • E-ISSN: 2150-6000
PublisherSAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1177/00221465211058152
PMID34794355
OpenAlexW3214478489
LanguageEN
Citations received10
References cited43

This article reveals how law and legal interests transform medicine. Drawing on qualitative interviews with medical professionals, this study shows how providers mobilize law and engage in investigatory work as they deliver care. Using the case of drug testing pregnant patients, I examine three mechanisms by which medico-legal hybridity occurs in clinical settings. The first mechanism, clinicalization, describes how forensic tools and methods are cast in clinical terminology, effectively cloaking their forensic intent. In the second, medical professionals informally rank the riskiness of illicit substances using both medical and criminal-legal assessments. The third mechanism describes how gender, race, and class inform forensic decision-making and criminal suspicion in maternal health. The findings show that by straddling both medical and legal domains, medicine conforms to the standards and norms of neither institution while also suspending meaningful rights for patients seeking care

Criminal law · Criminalization · Criminology · Health care · Institution · Political science · Psychiatry · Qualitative research · Sociology · Terminology · Historical and Scientific Studies · Law · Medical Malpractice and Liability Issues · Medicine · Psychology · Torture, Ethics, and Law

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Unique citing works10
Citations per year3,33
Citation span2023 - 2026 (4)
Citation velocitycurrent
Highly citedNo
Citation typesNeutral: 9
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