ABSTRACT
This chapter deals with the theoretical relevance of official statistics for the study of deviance. Robert K. Merton argues against the use of official statistics on quite different grounds. He states that such data are "unreliable" because "successive layers of error intervene between the actual event and the recorded event, between the actual rates of deviant behavior and the records of deviant behavior." The objection to the official statistics because they are "inappropriate" is on definitional grounds. The central hypothesis that Merton derives from his theory is that "aberrant behavior may be regarded as a symptom of dissociation between culturally prescribed aspirations and socially structured avenues for realizing these aspirations." The conception of rates of deviant behavior as the product of the socially organized activities of social structures provides a method of specifying the "relevant structure" to be investigated. Merton proposes to define deviant behavior in terms of the "acceptance" or "rejection" of cultural goals and/or institutionalized means.
