Crime Prevention

Towns that can afford it have a Guard, a military force meant to keep the peace, and access to a Magistrate who serves as both judge and jury.

However, many of the smaller settlements don't have either and, even in the larger city-states, Elysia's frontier justice makes it very much a case of "every man for himself".

Self-Defense

For the most part, a citizen's first port of call for protection and defense should be themselves. Those who can't protect themselves and their kin¹ don't normally survive for very long, and certainly not outside the city limits.

To that end, citizens are permitted to use deadly force to defend themselves. If you're attacked, whether out in the wild or on a city street, you're allowed to kill someone if they attack you first. For that reason, you won't find a Guard stopping you if you're carrying weapons

One of the flaws of this system is that you could just as easily assassinate someone and get away with the murder by claiming it was self-defence, but there's always the danger of a telepath finding out the truth — and the penalty for lying about why you killed someone is usually harsher than for straight-up murder.

There's also a danger of the victim or victim's family sending bounty hunters after you regardless of your reasons for killing them, but that's just a risk you'll have to take.

Protection for Hire

Protection can be bought at the right price, which is where bodyguards and the like come in. Any merchant who doesn't provide for the costs of a protection detail in his or her budget is asking for trouble, especially on the busier trade routes where bandits and robbers are most common — or out in the wilds where you'll be tripping over just as many monsters.

This of course doesn't extend only to commerce. Anyone who's anyone can afford to hire a bodyguard, permanently or even just for a day trip. And while the emphasis is very much on being able to protect yourself, not everyone can dedicate their lives to combat training so bodyguards will always have a job.

Keeping the Peace

Even though the emphasis is on self-defence and protection, there are provisions — chiefly the Town Guard — within the limits of larger towns and cities for those who can't protect themselves. These men and women are paid to maintain a constant watch over their town and to keep the peace (as well as protecting the city from monsters).

Investigation

Private Investigation

Elysia doesn't have an official investigative department. The Guard will often put up posters for wanted criminals and let the civilian quadrant (bounty hunters, mostly) handle it for themselves, but that doesn't usually involve trying to figure out who actually committed a crime in the first place.

It is possible for citizens to hire private investigators if they aren't sure who committed a crime against them. Depending on the crime involved, this investigator may be a tracker, a mind-reader, an empath or even a bruiser meant to intimidate, but probably very few people bother with this part.

Pursuit of Criminals

Elysia relies on its criminals being caught in the act, and/or the honesty of the accusers — which is to say that telepaths probably have a lovely little niche in the judicial system.

However a criminal is fingered, it's not the government who goes after them. Instead, the Watchtower handling the case will post bounties with varying rewards determined by the crime committed (murderers net a bigger reward than, say, thieves).

Bounty hunters are private citizens with enough combat experience (usually) and a license² to go after criminals, and they're permitted to use any means necessary for the capture and transportation of said criminals. Success or failure is determined by whether or not they can survive the chase.

It's not only the Guard who can post bounties, however. Private citizens can do so as well, and for things like murder you'll most likely find posters from both (ie, the Guard Office might post a bounty for a murderer, and each of his victim's families may also post a bounty for the same murderer, so depending on which evidence is required to claim the reward, it may even be possible to claim several for the same bounty!)

Of course, here lies another failing of the system: Anyone could claim that anyone else has committed a crime, and subsequently set any number of bounty hunters on to that person whether they're innocent or not. ((But that could lead to some fun plots. >D))

Punishment

Some towns in Elysia have a structured legal system, though nothing quite as comprehensive as the ones found on Earth. It may be as simple as having a magistrate to oversee legal disputes, and possibly this occupation is most filled with telepaths or empaths rather than book-learned advocates.

For these towns, it's not unusual for Watchtowers to have a couple of jail cells underground in basements (which themselves are very rare). These cells have to be solid enough to withstand the abilities of their criminals and often feature mesh wiring as well as iron bars, but are meant only as a temporary means of holding criminals while they await a Magistrate's judgement. In large part due to those same supernatural abilities, imprisonment in the long term is just not feasible, so corporal punishment — including the death penalty — is still widely used.

More than that, Elysia is mostly about personal justice. While there are provisions for the protection of citizens not able to defend themselves, it's an 'eye for an eye' society and the choice of punishment is usually left to the victim.

If a woman is raped, she can have her rapist castrated. If a man is murdered, his family can have his murderer killed or sent into the mines as slave labour. Pacifists, like the Nymphs, may choose simply to banish a criminal or force them to serve the community for a time. Conversely, warriors might even challenge an aggressor to trial by combat until their sense of justice is satisfied.

It's very much up to the individual how they wish to seek vengeance, and it's for that reason alone that many people are deterred from leading a life of crime.

Well, would you want your future to be left at the mercy of someone you've wronged?

¹ Being able to protect yourself and your kinsmen doesn't necessarily mean you need to have a background in combat. Nymphs, for instance, can protect themselves just fine without ever lifting a hand or a weapon to anyone. ⇑

² Bounty hunters don't actually need a license in most places. It's only really in the three major cities where the Guard are better organised and documented that hunters come under greater scrutiny. Even then, they're normally left to their own devices as long as they don't disturb the peace, and it's only when they break that golden rule that they'll be asked for that license. ⇑

Tags: Criminals | Occupations | Law | Cultural Notes

Crime & Punishment