Peter Conrad said this quote

“ A slow but steady transformation of deviance has taken place in American society. It has not been a change in behavior as such, but in how behavior is defined. Deviant behaviors that were once defined as immoral, sinful, or criminal have been given medical meanings. Some say that rehabilitation has replaced punishment, but in many cases medical treatments have become a new form of punishment and social control. ”

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Public facts are not like pebbles on the beach, lying in the sun and waiting to be seen. They must instead be picked, polished, shaped and packaged. Finally ready for display they the bear the marks of their shapers.

~ Peter Conrad

Reality is defined not as something that exists out there for the scientist or anyone else to discover but as a social construction that emerges from and is sustained by social interaction.

~ Peter Conrad

...[D]eviance is an attributed designation rather than something inherent in individuals...

~ Peter Conrad

When a theological world view dominated, deviance was sin; when the nation-states emerged from the decay of feudalism, most deviance became designated as crime; and in our own scientifically oriented world, various forms of deviance are designated increasingly as medical problems. Thus we view the medical paradigm as the ascending paradigm for deviance designations in our postindustrial society.

~ Peter Conrad