The music video for Robbers, a song by Indie rock band The 1975, portrays a relationship in which two people are so in love with each other that they are blind to reality. With almost 5 million views on YouTube, the video shows the couple engaging in activities involving sex, drugs, and the robbery of a store at gunpoint, which all cater to this idea. In a statement that accompanied the release of the video this past April, The 1975 front man Matty Healy described Robbers as a love song that was inspired by Quentin Tarantino’s film True Romance. “It’s the sentiment behind the film that appeals to me, the hopelessly romantic notion that two people can meet and instantly fall in love, an escape story where love is the highest law and conquers all against the odds.” In the book Seductions of Crime, author Jack Katz explains the commitment of a robber performing a stickup as something that must transcend rational considerations. Does love qualify as the type of commitment that is required of a robber by Katz’s definition?
