Cultural norms regarding Law and Order on Generation ship

Earth, far future: We built multi generation ship which can get 20 000 people to another solar system in next 20 generations (600 years)

For scope of this question assume that ship itself is well built and it will indeed be able to carry people and material to its destination and technology wise, the mission will be success.

But what about the people? Some of the things about multi generational ships were talked in separate questions, but one I believe was not:

What cultural norms would be the best for crime fighting?

I have to admit something: I personally cannot understand what is so good on cultural norm of locking people away if they misbehaved. And I cannot understand it even more in setup where these 20 000 people are locked away in broader meaning of sense.

Assumptions:

1. Space travel is hard and things will get broken beyond point of repair-ability on the ship.
2. Society to build and send this ship is still scarcity society and people to board the ship commonly have idea "one thing is more valuable than another".
3. Given assumption 1, there might be times on the ship where everyone has to follow strict rules in order to survive the travel
4. Someone will misbehave in 600 years and break the rules.

I have come up with one solution to this which is completely away from current western world cultural mindset: Have everyone in generation 1 agree to be constantly watched and accept constant monitoring as cultural norm.

Also, I think that as of punishment, the system should be rather tough on people. I am actually toying with idea of human torture being culturally acceptable on the ship. Example: You steal something, we can see you. And because we did see you, we will cut off your hand as your punishment.

I personally do not like my original idea of the solution. Therefore I ask in this forum: How should the ship approach Law and Order on ship?

posted over 8 years ago

Pavel Janicek‭

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