Crime : Young

• Young supports Becker's work; he carried out a participant observation among marijuana users in Notting Hill between 1967 and 1969. He noted how the police forced marijuana users into a closed group due to the over-reaction of the police.
• The police held stereotypes of the users who they saw as "Hippies" and in particular as scruffy, dirty, idle and scroungers. The police tried to clamp down on the use of marijuana. Previously, smoking took place simply at parties and was not the main reason for meeting. However, overreaction by the police forced drug users to meet behind closed doors and so what had been a peripheral activity became the main reason for meeting.
• The group itself saw themselves as a deviant group and so they deliberately set up a subculture as a sign of defiance with its own norms and values and fashion. The drug culture therefore made it difficult to re-enter society because they were seen as different, thus a self-fulfilling prophecy was created.