Questions tagged [crime]
For questions dealing with acts that violate the laws of a given legislation.
32
votes
12answers
7k 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
120 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
88 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
157 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
111 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-...
28
votes
14answers
6k 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
269 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
239 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
138 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
644 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
143 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 ...
41
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
201 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
114 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
312 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
264 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
128 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
768 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 ...
5
votes
5answers
272 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
137 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
226 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
256 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
5k 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
152 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
295 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
102 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
481 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
156 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
10k 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
295 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 ...
15
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 ...
36
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
2k 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 ...
27
votes
15answers
3k views
Can crime still exist if mages can see the past?
In my world one of the branches of magic is Sight; foresight, farsight and hindsight.
Foresight is basically the gift of prophecy. It's limited in that the world doesn't exist in a fixed timeline, so ...
4
votes
2answers
126 views
Freelance detectives
Bad guys will do bad things, no matter how far in the future we go to. Even with space travel and other lifeforms to live alongside humanity, crime will rear its ugly head no anywhere, anytime. So ...
12
votes
5answers
2k views
Could this villainous urban development scheme be easily detected?
THE SCENARIO: I've been inspired by shows like The Shield and The Wrong Mans to come up with my own (even more flamboyantly evil) development scheme, to use as the backdrop for the action in a low sci-...
11
votes
13answers
8k views
Which businesses/industries can easily and efficiently launder money? [closed]
In a world roughly like ours, I have $millions per year, variable, in illegal income that I want to launder through a legitimate business.
I want to be able to scale the business up and down to fit ...
1
vote
7answers
667 views
Criminal justice if people could live arbitrarily long lives
In modern society the main punishment for a crime is either imprisonment or financial penalty. Even if you're a billionaire, a 20 year prison sentence isn't something to brush off, and a large fine ...
6
votes
4answers
698 views
An unusual crime-and-punishment scenario - is it plausible?
In this scenario, there is a particular regime wherein the punishment for any and all violent crime is the same- a single gash to the neck.
Upon pronouncement of guilt by the crown or a recognized ...
10
votes
6answers
457 views
Surveillance: Big Brother Is Watching
Say there was a totalitarian regime that controlled 1 billion people. The GDP is ~$50,000 per capita.
This regime has nigh on total control over them, however, rebels are still considered a serious ...
0
votes
2answers
220 views
Do children have to pay for their parents’ crimes? [closed]
Question: Do children have to pay for their parents’ crimes?
This is a follow up question to my previous question (Who owns genes?), but with some added stuff. In this world, they also have memory ...
2
votes
2answers
189 views
Why won't police help? [closed]
I am writing a book where time travelers want to kill me because I foil their plan in the future. Luckily I find out before it's too late.
Obviously, the best plan to protect myself from future ...
13
votes
13answers
3k views
Telepath wants to steal money morally [closed]
Let's say we have a simple Telepath (mind control and reading). This Telepath is not interested in being a superhero. He doesn't want to mess around with stopping criminals and stuff because he has a ...
1
vote
2answers
135 views
Slum City: A Successful War on Drugs
In my story, there is a city which has fallen from grace and is embroiled in gang wars, drug cartels, and other generally high crime rates. When the main characters come in, the condition has been ...
