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A crime was the act of breaking of a law. One who broke the law was generally called a criminal. A punishment was the act of resolving a crime.

A capital crime was a crime punishable by death. (TNG: "Justice", "Sins of The Father"; DS9: "Dax"; VOY: "Meld")

A perfect crime was one that left no trace nor evidence despite a thorough investigation. (DS9: "Dax")

Crimes and their punishments[]

Angosians[]

The Angosians once created genetically-enhanced soldiers to fight in the Tarsian War for them. After the war, the soldiers were kept on the penal colony Lunar V, a moon, to protect them from criminal behavior, because the Angosians rejected criminal behavior and any form of crime. (TNG: "The Hunted")

Argrathi[]

According to the Argrathi Authority, the crime of espionage required a minimum of fifteen cycles of correction. In 2372, Miles O'Brien was given twenty for being curious and subsequently asking too many questions about Argrathi technology. The Argrathi form of "correction" involved assigning memories of incarceration modeled to fit each offender's personality. These memories, in fact, resulted from interactive programs that created artificial psychic realities from planted memories of things that never actually happened. The Argrathi used this form of punishment because they found it more efficient and more effective than maintaining an extensive prison system. (DS9: "Hard Time")

Bajorans[]

During the Cardassian occupation of Bajor, killing a Cardassian was not considered much of a crime. Odo referred to this after he told Commander Benjamin Sisko about the past activities of the Bajoran Ibudan during this time. Although Ibudan went to prison, he was released by the Bajoran Provisional Government. (DS9: "A Man Alone")

According to Odo, unauthorized access to crew quarters was a crime. (DS9: "Babel")

All Cardassians who worked on the Gallitep labor camp were considered war criminals. (DS9: "Duet")

In Bajoran space, the punishment for assault with intent to kill was a long prison term. Most of the conspirators of the Lissepian Mother's Day Heist were all charged with that crime after trying to obtain the proceeds of the heist for themselves, on Deep Space 9. (DS9: "Who Mourns for Morn?")

In Bajoran space and also in Federation space, vole fighting is illegal. (DS9: "Through the Looking Glass")

Intergalactic law states if a crew member or civilian is intoxicated they must be shown the brig to sleep it off. (DS9: "Duet", "Blood Oath")

In Bajoran space, littering is not allowed. (DS9: "Business as Usual") (DS9: "Prodigal Daughter")

Benkarans[]

The Benkarans lived within the territory controlled by the Nygeans, who viewed them as predisposed to criminal behavior. Although they only comprised ten percent of the overall population, Benkarans made up eighty percent of the population of Nygean jails. Benkarans were also ten times more likely to be executed for a crime. (VOY: "Repentance")

Cardassians[]

Under Cardassian law, guilt was confirmed prior to court proceedings – the trials themselves served only as a way to demonstrate the wrongdoing of the defendants and to illustrate the consequences of their alleged criminal behavior. Defendants were provided with legal counsel merely to help them "concede" the "wisdom" of the state's judicial process, as well as help them to admit guilt and express "proper" remorse. Cardassian judicial penalties were usually severe: in at least some cases, the courts had already scheduled the accused's execution before the trial began. (DS9: "Tribunal")

The Cardassians used cranial implants as a sort of help for members of the Obsidian Order. These implants could malfunction and serve as a sort of punishment device. In 2370 the exiled Elim Garak faced the pain and function of this piece of biotechnology. (DS9: "The Wire")

The Cardassians also punished members of their species with exile. Elim Garak was exiled and lived on Deep Space 9. He himself called this a torture. (DS9: "The Wire")

Deneb V[]

On Deneb V, fraud was punishable by the guilty party's choice of death penalties, including but not limited to death by electrocution, death by gas, death by phaser, and death by hanging. Harry Mudd, convicted of fraud for illegally reselling patents, was fleeing this punishment when he happened upon a planet later called Mudd. (TOS: "I, Mudd")

Dominion[]

The Dominion did not typically take prisoners, keeping only those that may later may have served a purpose to them. (DS9: "The Jem'Hadar", "In Purgatory's Shadow") If prisoners were held, they could be released following the end of hostilities between the Dominion and its enemies.

Several Cardassian prisoners, a number of whom were survivors of the Battle of the Omarion Nebula, were released from Internment Camp 371 following Cardassia's alliance with the Dominion. (DS9: "By Inferno's Light")

During battle, the Dominion preferred to kill the survivors of destroyed or disabled starships, unless they wished to use them to serve a greater purpose.

In 2373, the Jem'Hadar deliberately left survivors on the disabled IKS B'Moth because they wanted someone to try to rescue them, in an attempt to secure more kills. (DS9: "Soldiers of the Empire")

In 2375, following the Second Battle of Chin'toka, the Female Changeling wished to allow the otherwise vulnerable escape pod's "frightened, demoralized troops" to return to the Federation "to spread fear throughout the Federation with tales of what happened" in their overwhelming defeat. (DS9: "The Changing Face of Evil")

Dramians[]

The Dramens accused Doctor McCoy of causing the plague that eradicated the population of Dramia II before he was found innocent thanks to the help of the lone survivor Kol-Tai. (TAS: "Albatross")

Edo[]

The Edo had an unusual punishment system in which a crime might not be punished depending on where and when it was committed. The only punishment used in this system was death by lethal injection (TNG: "Justice").

Ennis / Nol-Ennis[]

Because of unresolvable conflicts between the Ennis and the Nol-Ennis they were banished onto a moon in the Gamma Quadrant which was used as a penal colony. It was orbited by a network of artificial satellites and its atmosphere was filled with artificial microbes which "cured" the death, following an eternal war between both factions. (DS9: "Battle Lines")

Founders[]

The Founders believed that a Changeling harming another was a crime. Odo's shapeshifting abilities were taken away and he was given Human form as his punishment for killing one of his own kind. (DS9: "Broken Link")

Federation[]

Kevin Uxbridge, a Douwd in Human disguise, destroyed the Husnock species with a mere thought in fury of blind rage after the Husnock attacked Rana IV and killed his wife Rishon. Captain Jean-Luc Picard stated that the Federation has "no law to fit your crime," and let Kevin return to Rana IV. (TNG: "The Survivors")

In 2384, a panel of Starfleet officers listed "stealing a Federation ship, impersonating officers, even illicitly inhabiting the mind of an esteemed admiral" among Federation crimes committed by Rok-Tahk, Dal R'El, Gwyndala, Jankom Pog, Zero, and Murf. Though Vice Admiral Kathryn Janeway came to their defense, the justices noted "good intentions do not make up for Federation crimes." (PRO: "Supernova, Part 2")

Humans[]

Without the intervention and influence of Q, Isaac Newton would have died forgotten in a Liverpool debtors' prison as a suspect in several prostitute murders. (VOY: "Death Wish")

Miles O'Brien commented to Alixus that her son Vinod was tied up because he "just fired a couple of arrows" at O'Brien and that in his community, that's a crime. (DS9: "Paradise")

In 2153 it was a crime for Humans to teach Skagarans. But Bethany chose to teach them and was arrested by Deputy Sheriff Bennings (ENT: "North Star")

During a holodeck simulation of the town of Deadwood in Earth's Ancient West, Worf, upon learning that he would play a sheriff and that his son Alexander Rozhenko would play his deputy, noted approvingly, "so we are in law enforcement." The simulation involved Worf having to apprehend notorious outlaw Eli Hollander and his gang. (TNG: "A Fistful of Datas")

J'naii[]

The J'naii believed that an individual who identified as male or female was committing the crime of perversion. Soren was found guilty of this crime and subjected to psychotectic therapy to obliterate the gender identity. (TNG: "The Outcast")

Klaestrons[]

Treason and murder were punishable by death for the Klaestrons. (DS9: "Dax")

Klingons[]

Captain Kirk and Doctor McCoy were arrested for the assassination of Klingon Chancellor Gorkon and sent to life imprisonment at Rura Penthe. This was considered a lesser punishment by a Klingon judge, but Commander Chekov referred to it as "the aliens' graveyard". (Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country)

Kortar, a figure in Klingon mythology, was punished for destroying the gods who created him. As punishment, he was condemned to ferry the souls of the dishonored to Gre'thor on the Barge of the Dead. (VOY: "Barge of the Dead")

Mari[]

The Mari believed any crime was caused by the person who originally had the violent thought and punished the person by removing the offending engrams from their mind. (VOY: "Random Thoughts")

Q[]

The Q Continuum provided several unique forms of punishment.

For wishing to commit suicide, Q was imprisoned in a rogue comet for eternity. (VOY: "Death Wish")

Amanda Rogers' father and mother were punished for their "incomprehensible" decision to remain on Earth during the 2340s. The Q ultimately executed them with an "unusually compact, yet extremely powerful" tornado that "spontaneously" appeared directly over their home, destroyed it, and then disappeared. (TNG: "True Q")

In 2366, Q was punished by the Continuum because he had "spread too much chaos through the universe". His punishment was having his powers stripped and being assigned the form of a mortal being. Although he had toyed with the idea of becoming a Markoffian sea lizard, or a Belzoidian flea, he ultimately requested to become Human. (TNG: "Deja Q")

Collaborating with the enemy was a crime punishable by death in the Continuum, a crime that Captain Kathryn Janeway and Q almost paid the price for. (VOY: "The Q and the Grey")

Rakhari[]

The Rakhari considered all crimes as serious but held no trials on their homeworld. Enemies of the government were punished by killing their family members. (DS9: "Vortex")

Ramurans[]

The Ramurans considered leaving their own planet a crime, so they used a neurolytic emitter on these refugees to erase their memories of all encounters and experiences of the outside world before reintegrating them into Ramuran society. (VOY: "Unforgettable")

Romulans[]

The Romulans firmly believed in the use of labor camps. In 2362, Quark and his accomplice Fallit Kot were indicted for hijacking a shipment of Romulan ale. Kot received eight years in a labor camp for the hijacking, whereas Quark, who claimed he had nothing to do with the hijacking itself, and was just a simple "middleman," was acquitted. However, it was not that simple; as trafficking in stolen goods was enough to receive imprisonment in a Romulan camp, it was determined that Quark was acquitted because he sold out Kot. (DS9: "Melora")

Takret[]

A captain of the Takret Militia threatened Captain Jonathan Archer to punish him for conspiracy when arriving at his homeworld after he found the vessel of three deserteurs aboard Enterprise NX-01. (ENT: "The Catwalk")

Talaxians[]

Under Talaxian law, avoiding or refusing service in the Talaxian Defense Forces during a time of war was a death penalty offense. Neelix managed to avoid this punishment while hiding from the Defense Forces during the Talaxian-Haakonian War. (VOY: "Jetrel")

Voth[]

The Voth Ministry of Elders viewed heresy as a crime. They charged Professor Forra Gegen with heresy for teaching Distant Origin Theory, a scientific theory that challenged Voth religious doctrine. Despite the evidence standing before them, Professor Gegen was still found guilty and sentenced to prison along with the Voyager crew, forcing him to retract his theory so they could leave. (VOY: "Distant Origin")

Vulcans[]

In the 22nd century, a mind meld was considered a crime, for which Soval appeared before the Vulcan High Command to answer for his mind meld. Soval was stripped his position as an ambassador. (ENT: "The Forge", "Awakening")

Also in the 22nd century, treason was a crime which was punishable by execution. Administrator V'Las told this to Commander T'Pol. (ENT: "Kir'Shara")

List of crimes[]

External links[]

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