Crime and punishment for a race of supers

How would a society in which everyone has Kryptonian-level superpowers deal with criminals, if no prison could hold them?  (Assuming of course that things like red solar radiation wouldn’t apply).  If we still assume that imprisonment is ever necessary, I think a Dragon Ball Z-style gravity chamber cranked up high enough would work, but the first thing that came to mind would be that there would be more of a focus on either execution or rehabilitation, depending on the crime.

It was touched on in TV's Supergirl (I know, bad show for the most part) where the DEO would place the rogue aliens in a containment facility with glass walls that would douse their powers to make them 'neutral'.
I prefer Ultra Lucille's version where she tells her sister 'Now, Nel there isn't a prison here on Earth that could possibly hold (the new) me. If only Lucille had finished the job herself...
 

In theory, you could build a prison cell that emits low levels of Kryptonite to the people inside. Not enough to kill but just enough to weaken their powers and prevent escape.

However, if confinement is not possible because their powers cannot be suppressed, then a society of super-powered beings might take much harsher punishment even for minor crimes. Punishment where death sentences are more common because confining a criminal just is not possible.

Don't forget the concept of mental prisons. The criminal is confined by putting them to sleep or in some coma because their powers while awake would not allow them to be easily confined. However, their minds are active and living through some simulated virtual environment. Maybe this is experiencing a virtual prison like experience or they are forced to re-live their crimes from the perspective of the victims. Various sci-fi shows and books have played with this concept.

I think we forget the power of social ostracism to keep people from doing a lot of the more minor crimes. This would probably be the only reasonable punishment for minor crimes in this scenario.

From Krypton itself, you've got the Phantom Zone. As long as its intersection with our reality isn't cracked open by a nuclear bomb or a wandering spaceship, depending on which version you like for how those criminals arrived to do evil on Earth.
If the criminals have some kind of weakness, the rest of society will try to use it to keep them down. Or there might be a yet superior race of even more super beings, or gods, that impose their own rules and sentences. Without that, you soon have the horror of unstoppable super villians who get away with whatever they want, as in "The Boys."

AUphoric wrote:

From Krypton itself, you've got the Phantom Zone. As long as its intersection with our reality isn't cracked open by a nuclear bomb or a wandering spaceship, depending on which version you like for how those criminals arrived to do evil on Earth.
 

Phantom Zone always reminds me of that Simpsons clip where they discover an inter-dimensional portal at their home. Homer throws some junk into the portal and the people on the other side throw back a note saying "Please stop throwing your trash into our dimension."

willow wrote:

Phantom Zone always reminds me of that Simpsons clip where they discover an inter-dimensional portal at their home. Homer throws some junk into the portal and the people on the other side throw back a note saying "Please stop throwing your trash into our dimension."

 

Now you're reminding me of the pilot episode of Stargate SG-1, when they tossed a box of tissues into the Stargate.

If the superpowers were fueled by a separate organ, say a super-liver, this could be removed from super convicts. Females might have 2 more of the super energy storage units.  Not sure if this would result in death or if they still had a regular liver that could store biochemical energy like normals.   As compensation to crime victims the super liver cells could be repackaged and sold as power cells.  The variable super liver cell flashlight that adjusts from a dim nightlight that lasts for 50 years to a spot light and at maximum a disintegrator beam for about a minute, or a single explosion that just leaves a crater.  Larger power cells could power villages or vehicles, possibly even space travel if the donors had that much power..
A less gruesome method would not involve surgery and just have external power transfer through a device similar to an electric chair that could remove the super powers and harness them elsewhere.   That might be like a prison sentence - prisoner is sentenced to provide electric power for the term of their sentence.   They could also do that by pumping water uphill into a hydropower reservoir or providing heat to replace fuel in a power plant.  Not sure how they would be made to stay focused on their task if they stay had their superpowers.  Removal of superpowers would be humbling and might be punishment enough especially if they could be left weaker than a normal human and a compromised immune system.   Not only are they weak but also feeling sick with allergies, colds and unfamiliar aches, pains and accidental cuts and bruises.  Also subject to aging and subject to bullying by all the formerly weaker supers thay had made enemies.

slim36 wrote:

If the superpowers were fueled by a separate organ, say a super-liver, this could be removed from super convicts. Females might have 2 more of the super energy storage units.
 

Aurora Universe has a separate organ for flight in Supremis. Women have one behind each breast, providing the expandable orgone energy storage. Men have one behind the sternum. Some Supremis don't have these organs, therefore can't fly, but are otherwise healthy and have oher superpowers. I don't think I've seen any AU stories of these being surgically removed. It could be a gory addition to the occasional vampires-in-the-AU story.

cbaby wrote:

I think we forget the power of social ostracism to keep people from doing a lot of the more minor crimes. This would probably be the only reasonable punishment for minor crimes in this scenario.
 

True, but wouldn't help against major crimes. After all, antisocial people don't care about society's disapproval.

willow wrote:

they are forced to re-live their crimes from the perspective of the victims.
 

Some religious teachings say this happens in a Life Review after death. Not just crimes, but all our actions perceived from the point of view the others affected. SF show could have psionic aliens that impose this on criminals while still alive. Has that particular twist been done? It feels like a good fit for the original Star Trek.

willow wrote:

they are forced to re-live their crimes from the perspective of the victims.

 

Some religious teachings say this happens in a Life Review after death. Not just crimes, but all our actions perceived from the point of view the others affected. SF show could have psionic aliens that impose this on criminals while still alive. Has that particular twist been done? It feels like a good fit for the original Star Trek.

I know it was done in episodes of both Stargate: SG-1 and Star Trek: Voyager. In both cases, main characters were accused of murder and forcibly implanted with memories of the crime, while their teammates had to prove their innocence and fight to get the memories removed. 

The death penalty will make a big comeback if prison is not a practical or even possible solution. We didn't cut off nearly all executions because we're better or kinder than past generations, we ended executions because we *COULD*. Because we have such an abundance of wealth in our society that we can afford to imprison our worst criminals at ruinous expense instead of killing them.

If we couldn't afford it, we wouldn't do it. No society has ever done something it couldn't afford to do just because it was "right." So if the cost of having a prosperous society is that all but the most petty law-breakers are executed on the spot when caught because everybody is so powerful they can wreck massive amounts of valuable infrastructure and private property on a whim and cannot be stopped any other way, that's what would happen.

That said, fines, various forms of compelled service, shunning, and other less severe punishments would also have a place in such a society. Only those who have proven to not care about their place in society would be removed from it in such a permanent way.

Edit: I forgot the likely and grim possibility of exile. A world of super-beings that sends their criminals out into the rest of the universe would be profoundly bad neighbors for everybody else.

The implanted guilt trips maybe with PTSD boosters. Could be like the remedy for "ultraviolence" from Clockwork Orange. Anytime they consider their previous acts they become ill..

Something like the Phantom Zone makes more sense than anything else. 

Especially given that prison doesn't work even for humans. Unless you are locking bad guys up forever, what comes out of prison is often worse than what went in. Not saying that rehabilitation doesn't happen, but not nearly as often as we'd like. 

Shadar

Studies of recidivism show many jailed end up returning within a few years.  There are some notable success stories like the Machete star, who got lucky and got picked out to act as a criminal.   There's  a famous TV home and cooking show host that did her time and is back on TV.   It helps if you are wealthy.   Many are less fortunate if they come out marked as damaged goods.  Phantom zone could be similar to former penal colonies like Australia.

slim36 wrote:

Studies of recidivism show many jailed end up returning within a few years.  There are some notable success stories like the Machete star, who got lucky and got picked out to act as a criminal.   There's  a famous TV home and cooking show host that did her time and is back on TV.   It helps if you are wealthy.   Many are less fortunate if they come out marked as damaged goods.  Phantom zone could be similar to former penal colonies like Australia.

Agree… and when you combine that with superhumans, the likelihood that supervillains turn into superheroes is even more unlikely because of the corruption of power. Once you have evil power, you can’t let it go.

In a story I’ve been working on for years, I postulate that there are only so many souls in the universe that keep getting reborn, and a soul brings their good or their bad tendencies with them into a new life. Except those that go into the Zone of Lost Souls, which extinguishes them, never to be reborn again. That’s a good method of punishment for a supervillain in my book.

shadar

There's the ground hog day or Edge of Tomorrow premise, where the players have to keep trying until they pass the test.