Sports Doping as Deviance

Competitive athletes have used a variety of substances to enhance their on-the-field performance, at a minimum, more than two thousand years. Until the past century, such use had been largely accepted or tolerated. But in the twentieth century, the development of chemically pure and substantially more powerful performance-enhancing drugs, followed by the death of some of the athletes who used them, resulted in the establishment of formal organizations and agencies to control such practices. Since the World Anti Doping Agency was founded in 1999 the fight against doping has intensified.

This small book raises the question whether the existing concern over sports doping rises to the level of a moral panic