ABSTRACT
The expanding use of anabolic-androgenic steroids by police officers in the United States is the unacknowledged steroid epidemic of our era. The profound appeal of the functional rationale that is supposed to explain the behavior of steroid-doped policemen is evident in some of the official and expert explanations of why police officers use anabolic steroids. The deviance/dysfunctional doctrine are also official policy in the American military. There are various medical rationales offered by police officers who use testosterone or other anabolic steroids that have been prescribed by licensed physicians. Many police officers who are infatuated with the paramilitary “hypermasculine” style will be tempted to use anabolic steroids to harden their bodies and their attitudes toward their adversaries. The authors recognize that the large numbers of police personnel who use steroids belong to a genuinely “global anabolic universe” populated by groups of “action-oriented” males.
