What is it about?

Fatal police shootings fit within the historical common law category of homicides under compulsion. They rarely result in prosecutions and even less convictions. This article considers slayings to survive in the horror series The Walking Dead. Contemporary law focuses on whether or not the decision to use force was reasonable, but the Walking Dead depicts the narrowness of this focus. I argue that the moral difference in slayings is not only whether a law enforcement officer’s decision to use force was reasonable, but whether or not the slayer desired to kill and was acting for a public or personal purpose.

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Why is it important?

This article provides an alternative perspective on police slayings. It is also important because it raises questions about the limits on our expectations of the criminal justice system.

Perspectives

I loved the first few seasons of the Walking Dead. One of the key questions raised by the series is why is Rick a goody and why is Shaun a baddy? This article provides a way of thinking through that question.

PROFESSOR PENNY CROFTS
University of Technology Sydney

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This page is a summary of: Killing To Survive: The Walking Dead, Police Slayings and Medieval Malice, Law Culture and the Humanities, February 2017, SAGE Publications,
DOI: 10.1177/1743872117692298.
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