Most societies do not provide smooth pathways for everyone to reach the social expectations. Social expectations here, in theoretical terms, can be called cultural goals. These goals are set by family mostly, whereas schools, peer pressure etc variables influence and coerce to some extent too. A child grows up learning about his/her family expectations, and s/he is taught about the institutionalized means, in other words the socially approved methods to achieve the goal.
Why do some societies have a higher number of deviants? The shortest answer Merton could give is that some societies may create a large rate of deviance because it is on high-need of resources. (Merton,1968) Hankering after aspirations is one of the basic human instincts. It is society that constructs the aspirations within human beings. For instance, in this era of capitalism, money is considered the most valuable thing and thus it is the center of most people’s dreams. Aspirations of most people in America, as Robert.K. Merton argues, evolves around monetary success.
The intriguing fact here is, the definition of monetary success works differently for different people. Thus, whereas highly impoverished societies have a large rate of blue collar crimes, the wealthy societies may have a higher rate of white collar crimes. Both types of societies may have a similar number of retreatists. Societies that have a more authoritative regime have a chance of having more rebels. In the societies where norms and values are given the highest priority, may have a larger number of ritualists.
Finland has the most equal opportunities in terms of education. From Merton’s point of view, in countries like Finland, the number deviants should be low. According to Statista, the crime rate in Finland is 85.54 per 1000 people (8.554%)
If we look at the country with most unequal education, which is South Africa, the crime rate is 41.87% (as of January, 2021).
Robert Merton’s theory of deviance could be applied to real world circumstances more specifically, if the statistics about different types of hidden deviance were available.
References
Merton, R. K. (1968). Social Theory and Social Structure (Enlarged ed.). Simon and Schuster.
samha's table 