The legacy of Durkheim and Weber's establishing the connections between particular forms of society and the general criticism of the lack of attention to power in society in their work, reorientated the sociology and history of punishment in the directions described in Chapters 7 and 8. Concentration on the repressive justice aspects of punishment neglected by Durkheim and Weber, and on the power differentials between individuals and, even more importantly, between different groups in society, has meant that for two decades the links between punishment and non-material aspects of culture, as well as the symbolic aspects of punishment, have been overlooked. Two recent works have redirected attention to these neglected aspects of the social role and meaning of punishment, so that it may be that a new phase in sociology's engagement with penality is emerging.