Talcott Parsons Quote

Without deliberate planning on anyone's part, there have developed in our type of social system, and correspondingly in others, mechanisms which, within limits, are capable of forestalling and reversing the deep-lying tendencies for deviance to get into the vicious circle phase which puts it beyond the control of ordinary approval-disapproval and reward-punishment sanctions.

p. 319-320 as cited in: Paul Gingrich (2002) "Functionalism and Parsons," Sociology. 250. November 15-22, 2002 - The social system (1951)