Medical Model or Moral Model?

In Medical Model or Moral Model?, R.J. Rushdoony critiques the dominant humanistic approach to crime and deviant behavior, which frames wrongdoing as a sickness rather than sin. This “medical model,” he argues, absolves individuals of personal responsibility by attributing their actions to social conditions or psychological imbalances, leading to an ever-growing list of offenses managed by experts rather than moral accountability. In contrast, Scripture presents the “moral model,” where sin is a willful transgression of God’s law and requires regeneration, restitution, and repentance. Rushdoony warns that embracing the medical model undermines law, justice, and ultimately civilization itself, replacing moral responsibility with excuses and social decay.