It should also be said again, since it is so easily forgotten,
that to center this theory upon the cultural and structural sources of
deviant behavior is not to imply that such behavior is the characteristic,
let alone the exclusive, response to the pressures we have been examining.
This is an analysis of varying rates and types of deviant behavior, not
an empirical generalization to the effect that all those subject to these
pressures respond by deviation. The theory only holds that those located
in places in the social structure which are particularly exposed to such
stresses are more likely than others to exhibit deviant behavior.
Yet, as a result of countervailing social mechanisms, most even of these
stressful positions do not typically induce deviation; conformity tends
to remain the modal response (1968, p. 237).