Numerous theories of criminality have been proposed, attempting to explain what exactly causes people to commit crimes. Robert K. Merton argues that a strain put on people from society causes them to commit crimes while Sigmund Freud posits a preexisting sense of guilt as the cause. In Boardwalk Empire, an HBO drama television series, crime is depicted as a necessary evil in the new age of prohibition. In sharp contrast with Freud’s theory of criminality but similar in some ways to Merton’s theory, Boardwalk Empire depicts a lack of regulation of criminal behaviors, a desire for wealth and power and pressure from influential upper class individuals as the chief causes of crime in the ever changing society. In Boardwalk Empire, crime is a daily