. In effect, these members of society begin to think of other, often illegal, ways to succeed. Furthermore, when this occurs, respect for the traditionally accepted means of achieving goals crumble, norms weaken, and society is no longer able to regulate the methods its members use to obtain success. Therefore, high crime among lower classes can be attributed to the stresses caused by American society. If a person is born into a poor family, they might be forced to work while going to high school, and may not be able to focus on school work, like other classmates. Therefore, due to life chances, they might not have the opportunity to go to college due to bad grades or unaffordability. While constantly struggling to make ends meet, they decide to commit a crime to be able to have material possessions, since they believe that they will never be able to save up to buy anything through traditional work. This new social theory states that deviancy is people simply responding normally to the social situation in which they are in. Furthermore, Merton states that "some social structures exert definite pressures upon certain persons in the society to engage in nonconforming, rather than conforming conduct" (230). In addition, deviance varies culture to culture. What we consider to be deviant is different than what other societies consider deviant. Deviant definitions also change rapidly. American society used to think that women who wore short skirts, or smoked cigarettes were deviant. Now, the same acts are not considered to still be deviant. In addition, Merton notes that "some social structures exert a definite pressure upon certain persons in society" (230). American society is a perfect example of a society that exerts unreasonable pressures, and therefore leads some of its members to deviant behavior. This social theory is proven further by Merton's theory of social structure. In American society, Merton believes that there are two elem...
