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The Crime Of Smoking Weed Underage

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When looking at the town of Monument, Colorado, a small town just north of Colorado Springs, with a high school with approximately 1100 students. The activities that were considered deviant were far different than more urban areas. A common example of deviance that was prevalent was smoking marijuana and while there was a lack of shoplifting. Smoking marijuana is considered very deviant behavior in Monument, especially in relation to Boulder. Monument is considered a very boring town with not much to do in the evening so a fair amount of kids resorted to smoking marijuana. The differential association theory can help to explain this. Differential association theory is the theory that criminal and deviant behavior is learned, and not inherent. The crime of smoking weed underage can be applied to the four main principles discussed in class. To begin, the learning occurs within a small group. Many of the kids I knew learned from their older siblings or friend’s older siblings. Fitting into the idea that it can be learned in a group, sometime even as small as a household. Smoking marijuana also fits into the learning principle; there are many different ways to smoke marijuana and many strategies to not getting caught. Many of which are only learned by observation and experience. It can be related back to class when we watched the video with the Bobo doll experiment. The children would of never known which ways to hit the doll if it were not for the woman showing them how. Just

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