The Routine Activities Theory In Night Of The Living Dead

(Griffin Shea) 65 Sentences The ‘Night of the living dead” starts out in a graveyard with Barbara and Johnny. Johnny spots the zombie slowly approaching and tries to run while barbara stays behind and slowly walks towards the zombie. The zombie then grabs her and Johnny jumps in to try and break the zombie away from his sister. Doing so he falls and hits his head on a gravestone. Barbara then runs and starts to make her escape with the zombie following close behind. She makes her way to a house and finds her way inside. Running frantically around the house she spots a dead body at the top of the stairs. Barbara is then frightened and runs out of the house only to be greeted by headlights and a man standing tall in front of her.

The routine activities theory states “ The Routine activities theory is the notion that criminal victimization increases when motivated offenders and suitable targets converge”. In my own words this means that a crime is only committed if the attacker sees a suitable target. In this scenario the attacker will get stronger as the victim gets weaker. This relates to the movie in a pretty clear manner. When Ben has the rifle in his possession. This makes him a clear attacker to the mindless zombies. Now, it may appear at first glance that the zombies are the attacker, and in certain scenarios they are. However when Ben has his rifle aimed at the zombies head, and pulls the trigger without the zombie attacking him, That turns him into the “Committed Attacker” and turns the zombie into the “suitable targets”. However the end of the movie changes. Once the number of zombies grow, ben is weakened and the zombies overrun the

However there are some scenes where you can find small glimpses of the adjective. Hedonism is the devotion to pleasure, especially pleasuring the senses. Hedonism brings a “must have” feeling towards an action or object. In some ways it can be compared to addiction. The only example I was able to find was in the very first scene of the movie. The zombie that approaches Barbara and Johnny felt a need to go attack them. All the zombie wants to do is eat their flesh, And that's what satisfies him
The Academic research I decided to do was on the Routine Activity Theories. In 1979, 2 men questioned urban crime rates. Doing so they found that every crime had 3 things. First is someone who is willing to commit the offense. Next is a suitable target, and finally the absence of a guardian capable of preventing the crime. I thought this tied in throughout the entire film. Never is there a guardian capable of preventing the outbreak, Zombies were willing to commit the offense of murder and all sorts of other heinous crimes. And to them Humans were the perfect