Questions tagged [crime]
For questions dealing with acts that violate the laws of a given legislation.
103
questions
14
votes
12answers
11k views
Is stealing the moon actually possible?
I'm writing a heist story set in the near future. The goal of my main protagonists is to actually steal the Moon. The budget of their escapade is not a variable; they will get this done however ...
4
votes
5answers
232 views
Why would a human bomb not be blown apart by rune magic?
I am a homicide detective on the magical police force. Runes are magical symbols fused into objects that imbue those items with magical power. These spells are stored in these runes for long term use ...
3
votes
2answers
164 views
How many gangs (criminal and non-criminal) can fit in a fictional crime-ridden New York City?
So, I'm writing a fictional story about gangs and the city I'm using as the setting is loosely based on New York. More specifically, the size of New York City, and the population. I checked on Google ...
3
votes
6answers
125 views
Early stages of a police / surveillance state, experiment leading to totaliarian government [closed]
A democratic government starts tightening its grip on the citizens by tiny steps, slowly but surely they advance towards a state that resembles China today.
In their first step, they start a ...
-6
votes
3answers
165 views
How would I kill every one on earth with only $1000 [closed]
Well, this is a wacky one. I only have $1000 dollars how would I get rid of everyone on the planet.
(this is all hypothetical)
1
vote
4answers
147 views
How to prevent theft in a world where dreams are shared?
Say we can influence our dreams to a certain extend and are able to participate involuntarily in somebody else dream, I am wondering is there a way to prevent leaking important information such as my ...
5
votes
4answers
154 views
How would a Disappearer make himself known as reliable?
A "Disappearer" sells the service of taking people and giving them new lives and identities. The Disappearer doesn't want to reveal identity to avoid being interrogated by the police or worse, ...
4
votes
4answers
121 views
How to uncover a suspicious person's hidden identity discreetly?
Its modern time 2010s to 2019. It's a normal world like ours. Takes place in a 1st world country like either USA or Korea. (Or if need be then a nameless civilized country)
Q.
You find a person ...
12
votes
19answers
6k views
How to prevent criminal gangs from making/buying guns?
TLDR: What can modern governments do to force criminal gangs to use melee weapons instead of guns.
So I am writing a novel where the main character is pushed out of society, and is forced to join a ...
9
votes
6answers
2k views
How to hide your own body? [closed]
It's the perfect locked-room mystery: the police find the victim murdered, but the room is locked from the inside. How did the killer escape? He didn't. After committing the murder, the killer ...
1
vote
1answer
102 views
What could be electable positions in the senate of organized crime? [closed]
So I am constructing a decisional body for the world of organized crime in my near future setting. I am basing this on many things, among them the ancient roman senate.
Only the most senior members ...
35
votes
12answers
8k views
Crime rates in a post-scarcity economy
A post-scarcity civilisation is one where the automatisation of production and a universal basic income system have made it impossible to suffer unwillingly from the lack of means to satisfy the ...
7
votes
16answers
2k views
How would the world control an invulnerable immortal mass murderer? [closed]
This question came to me after re-watching Jason movies and some Hulk movies. SCP-096 was a huge inspiration as well. Forgive me if this question is silly but I'm curious on how humanity would react ...
-5
votes
2answers
131 views
A Pyramid Scheme for Terrorism and Crime
There have been many pyramid schemes from commercial scams to chain letters.
A single terrorist wants to take over the world. He has a gun and threatens two people that he will kill their families if ...
0
votes
1answer
95 views
What methods would a detective use to solve the murder…of a robot? [closed]
In what ways would it be different from solving a human murder case? And what circumstances would make killing robots a serious offense, even if they don't have rights and are still referred to as ...
-1
votes
2answers
198 views
Medieval travel times [closed]
I read another thread Travel time in Medieval times about this, but I'm still struggling to find a more definitive answer.
I have a town suffering from scarce food, due to previous years of crops not ...
-1
votes
3answers
119 views
(Mostly) Legal reason to seize an in-danger minor [closed]
I figure this question belongs here though it definitely has a legal counterpart to it. But since it's fiction and supernatural no less, I didn't think it would make sense to put it in a more legal-...
31
votes
18answers
11k views
How to fool a DNA test (for dummies)
It is the year 2000 and Joe has committed a crime in a small town in central Europe. When the police calls all adults living in the area to voluntarily provide a DNA sample, Joe knows he's in trouble. ...
0
votes
7answers
286 views
How deep can an ordinary human completely bury themselves armed only with a shovel?
In my society, honour is all important. A condemned criminal can recover his or her family's honour by burying themselves alive as a form of suicide.
My question is: How deep can an ordinary human be ...
7
votes
12answers
1k views
How can I track the use of illegal magic?
Orgone is the measure of a person's connection with the cosmos. It is the conduit through which the power of the cosmos flows, focused through a sorcerer's will. Everyone is capable of performing ...
18
votes
7answers
4k views
How can one individual have two different biological signatures?
A detective is investigating a series of grisly murders in New York. The bodies of the victims seem to have been ripped apart by a inhumanly strong person. He has narrowed down the list of suspects to ...
3
votes
6answers
332 views
How can a renegade coven recruit its members without being discovered?
This is a follow-up question for this one:
How can I preserve the long term cooperation of a witch coven?
All people in this world are born with some degree of magical power, which increases through ...
3
votes
2answers
149 views
How can I prove that an individual was possessed during the act of committing a crime? [closed]
Devils are alive, and walk among us. This has been known to the human civilization ever since the gates to hell opened up, releasing the Devils upon our world. Although the gate was sealed and the ...
9
votes
4answers
668 views
Would it be possible to distil specific human emotions into an edible drug form?
I am writing a dystopian future where I hope to make it possible that specific emotions can be taken in the form of pills or drug form; or, combined pills taken to form more complex feelings. ...
7
votes
3answers
166 views
How can a coven of crones operate in anonymity?
There is a ritual that allows a mage to steal the soul of another person. This adds their mana to your own, making your magic more powerful. It also extends your lifespan and makes your physical form ...
42
votes
15answers
10k views
How can a criminal organization incentivize its employees to do better while keeping its ruthless image?
SPECTRE (SPecial Executive for Counterintelligence, Terrorism, Revenge and Extortion) is a nefarious organization run by me, a criminal mastermind named Ernesto Blofeld. It has its tentacles in many ...
2
votes
2answers
269 views
Who watches the watchmen?
Background
I have a highly industrialized country that is rapidly economically growing, all the while expanding its territory (think along the lines of the USA's territorial expansion between 1820 - ...
0
votes
2answers
144 views
How to detect a “love” potion?
A concoction has been invented that can influence a target to fall in love with an individual. This works in two parts. The user must drink one type of potion to emit certain hormones while the ...
2
votes
2answers
358 views
Everyone can heal very quickly. How does this impact forensics and criminal investigations?
So the central conceit of my story is that everyone has various superhuman powers in modern day America, and one of the powers that everyone has is a superhuman healing factor. Anything we'd classify ...
3
votes
11answers
271 views
Of replicators and postage stamps
It is my assumption that the development of Star-Trek style replicators would cause enormous problems for paper or other physical money/currency or any form of physical object of assigned value. In ...
2
votes
2answers
135 views
Do hostage situation procedures allow for a heist like this? [closed]
I'd like to split this into two questions, to a degree, although one is entirely dependent on the other. Let's say that a group of criminals are trying to rob a place (either a bank or a jewelry store)...
-2
votes
7answers
1k views
Can we build a world that is crime-free? [closed]
If we send a whole bunch of people that are highly educated and all have a well-guided moral compass to a distant world,
No one commits any crime
There is no any mention of any crime
After a few ...
6
votes
5answers
279 views
Keeping the Butchers together
A group of space criminals collectively known as the Butchers is gathering enough power to be considered as a serious threat. Although they are nowhere near as powerful as the two major space empires, ...
1
vote
0answers
142 views
In the US, how closely are people who die in a fire investigated? [closed]
Let's say a house burns down and there's a body in the house. The body is badly damaged but roughly matches the sole inhabitant of the house. How much effort is typically required to ensure the body ...
1
vote
2answers
237 views
What kind of poisons could be used in a hospital setting?
In my crime thriller, one of my characters is killed while recovering from a subdural hematoma in the hospital. What kind of poison could be injected into her IV that would cause her organs to shut ...
2
votes
5answers
285 views
What legal action will be taken on me if I kill the alternate myself from other reality? [closed]
so another me from alternate reality comes to meet me and I had to kill him for some reasons and I'm caught by the police.
Following scenario takes place in US and our world is unaware of alternate ...
4
votes
4answers
7k views
What's the stealthiest way to knock someone out? [closed]
A sneaky character needs to incapacitate someone. It's a sensitive situation, so this must be done quickly, quietly, and reliably.
The target is a healthy human adult. Killing the target is highly ...
-1
votes
5answers
156 views
Small flying drones with firearms are legal [closed]
In this hypothetical world which is very similar to our world, small drones carrying light firearms (think handgun) are made legal.
They were first mostly used as home security systems. They fly ...
22
votes
7answers
5k views
How to catch a Faceless Man?
Imagine that in modern world, a Faceless Man of Braavos is walking among us. He is able to completely change his appearance in a split second, and, unfortunately, keeps killing people. Would it be ...
6
votes
3answers
1k views
What if hell is real… by necromancy?
This story set in a medieval world, where necromancy is forbidden by law, but openly deployed by the church to simulate hell.
There is a dedicated pool of fire just below the church of this kingdom, ...
1
vote
5answers
320 views
What would cause a modern society to discount a real-world, happening-in-plain-sight conspiracy?
Where conspiracy is defined as:
an agreement between persons who intend to gain some collective advantage while keeping their agreement secret from the public or from other people affected by it.
...
-2
votes
2answers
113 views
Unidentifiable body [closed]
A man is under interrogation: he is a suspect in the case of his ex. She has disappeared a couple of weeks ago, and around the same time the police has found the remainders nearby. Surely, it is not ...
10
votes
3answers
534 views
How can elemental magic aid forensic in a magical murder?
The ideal murder weapon is probably an icicle, because then you can melt the evidence
Well, it's far from perfect. At least when magic kicks in.
The story is set in this modern world, with elemental ...
1
vote
3answers
160 views
How to track down a killer who can steal DNA using 21st century science? [closed]
Let's say that a youth had been bitten by a radioactive octopus and gained an ability to temporarily splice the host DNA with one or more foreign DNAs. Below is a general breakdown of how this special ...
33
votes
21answers
11k views
How to prevent invisible people from committing crimes?
The year is 2020, 98% of the world population are normal people with normal skills, two percent (2%) are people who have the ability to become invisible at will.
The majority of the invisible people ...
37
votes
19answers
12k views
Can I reduce the crime rate by penalizing criminals' children socially?
This is a social engineering method.
The government takes background checks very seriously. A person's moral standing is not only determined by the actions of the person themselves, but also by his/...
2
votes
4answers
338 views
How far would information about a criminal spread in Medieval times?
One of my characters is an assassin and mercenary. He's killed plenty of nobles and participated in a couple wars all across the continent. For the story to work, I need other criminals to know who he ...
16
votes
9answers
7k views
Can estrogen be used to lower the criminal rate of a civilization?
I'm imagining a civilization trying to lower the criminal rate as low as possible in order to become a peaceful place.
Suppose the criminal rate of that virtual civilization currently is not awfully ...
37
votes
9answers
9k views
How to organize crime?
A middle income country with weak institutions, which is heavily dependent on tourism and trade for its foreign currency, has a problem with rising crime rates. There are many petty criminals from ...
16
votes
10answers
3k views
How can you punish someone without causing suffering? [closed]
Imagine a world where any human suffering caused by other humans creates demons in the world. A cruel word may spawn a mischievous sprite. A murder may create a prowler that would crawl the streets ...
