Justice

Justice is a concept that means bad people will be rightfully punished for the wrongs that they have committed.

## Overview

Justice can be summarized as a criminal being served the punishment that they have earned for their crimes. Depending on said crimes, the punishment can be one of many possible things, from time in prison to execution. The classic view of how a criminal should 'receive justice' is thought of as "an eye for an eye", which means if they have done something wrong, they deserve a punishment as great as the crime they committed. If a person murders someone, then according to this term, it means they themselves should face the death penalty as a suitable form of justice.

Many forms of justice have been shown numerous times in the series.

However, a common theme in the series is that corrupt and/or overzealous members of Marines and Cipher Pol often use Justice as vindication for their unethical actions, claiming that every inhumane thing they have done, atrocities worse than what the criminals would have done, as a necessary evil to preserve peace to the world. This has often led people (most of them pirates) to react with disgust at their behavior. For example, in the CP9 Mini series, Rob Lucci was seen to have dealt "Excessive Justice" to the Candy Pirates. The extreme nature of his attack against them horrified the citizens that witnessed his strike.

Several interpretations of the idea of Justice exist within the Marines, and its members are free to adhere to whichever suits them the most, although the World Government tends to encourage the Absolute Justice interpretation.

## Law Enforcers

To enact "Justice" on the One Piece world, the law enforcement are split between the following groups.

### Marines

The **Marines** are the main and largest law enforcement organization of the entire world, and they are widespread throughout the four blue seas and both halves of the Grand Line. Justice is a central point in Marines' activity, to the point where the word ​"Justice" is emblazoned on the uniform coats of all commissioned officers.

### Pacifistas

**Pacifistas** are cyborgs built on the likeness of former Warlord of the Sea Bartholomew Kuma. They are human weapons developed by the Marines' head scientist, Dr. Vegapunk, with the intent of aiding the Marines in hunting wanted pirates. Pacifistas are incredibly costly to produce, but their cybernetic enhancements make them a formidable challenge to most pirates, including Super Rookies.

### Cipher Pol

**Cipher Pol** are eight units of special government intelligence agencies that also enforce the law. There are two unofficial units which exist unknown to the majority of the world; the assassination unit, [./https://onepiece.fandom.com/wiki/CP9 CP9], and [./https://onepiece.fandom.com/wiki/CP0 CP0], who work under the direct command of the [./https://onepiece.fandom.com/wiki/World\_Noble World Nobles], and they have the unique authority to kill any citizen, criminal or not, that they deem to be a danger to the world.

### Police

The **Police** are local defensive forces for everyday combat with common criminals. While the [./https://onepiece.fandom.com/wiki/Marines Marines] maintain a high order of policing in the world, worldwide police officers are employed by the [./https://onepiece.fandom.com/wiki/World\_Government World Government] to supervise local areas and arrest unlawful citizens (although locations unaffiliated with the World Government may have their own police force answering to the local ruler, as is the case of Skypiea with the God's Guards and [./https://onepiece.fandom.com/wiki/Wano\_Country Wano Country] with the [./https://onepiece.fandom.com/wiki/Mimawarigumi Mimawarigumi]). The duty of a police officer is to maintain law and order, however they only deal with local interests unlike the Marines who maintain a global presence across the world. They leave the task of capturing tough criminals to the Marines, but aid them where needed. So far they have only deployed in small numbers which sharply contrasts the scale of deployment of the Marines.

### Bounty Hunters

**Bounty Hunters** work for a living to turn in wanted criminals for their bounty reward. Some work alone, such as Jean Ango, while others work in groups like [./https://onepiece.fandom.com/wiki/Baroque\_Works Baroque Works]. They operate independently of the World Government's influence, often acting outside the law. All bounty hunters seen so far do not seem to work to uphold justice, but rather for money and fame, and many of them have committed crimes themselves.

## Judicial System

Once a criminal has been captured, they are put on trial.

### Judges

Judges serve an important purpose in the speedy and organized trial of a criminal. The Judge is arguably the most important person to law enforcement as he is the one who makes the final decision regarding a criminal's punishment. On the word of "Guilty" or "Innocent" a criminal can either walk free or be sent to serve for their crimes.

### Outcome

Generally, most citizens do not have the desire to turn to criminal activity or aid criminals for the fear of punishment by the Marines and may be quick to turn in criminals to avoid association with them as they fear they could be prosecuted for such an act.

Captured criminals also often regret that they ever committed offenses as the punishment they face is often brutal and painful. Since they are targets by the law, the law in turn does not support them when they are in need and when they are in trouble they have only themselves to get though the problem.

## Punishments

Punishment is the final effort of enforcing the rule of "Justice" in the *One Piece* world. Criminals who attain a [./https://onepiece.fandom.com/wiki/Bounty bounty] can risk bounty hunters chasing them, or in more serious cases Marines. Those in the Grand Line also can risk being taken by kidnapping groups and sold off. Marines who capture a criminal may hold onto them until they are taken to a more suitable prison, like [./https://onepiece.fandom.com/wiki/Impel\_Down Impel Down]. For those who are deemed too much, they are publicly executed and made an example of in order to deter others from doing activities similar to what they did.

### Prisons

**Prisons** are facilities that hold down captured criminals as part of their punishment. The biggest prison in the world is [./https://onepiece.fandom.com/wiki/Impel\_Down Impel Down], which is reserved for notorious pirates and criminals. It located in the [./https://onepiece.fandom.com/wiki/Calm\_Belt Calm Belt], making escape nearly impossible. Some will spend a brief moment here, but most will spend the remainder of their lives here, even dying in the extreme nature of Impel Down's levels while the worst criminals are placed on the very low levels of Impel Down essentially they end up being "erased" from historical record.

Local prisons also exist, usually in Marine bases (like [./https://onepiece.fandom.com/wiki/Marineford Marineford]) or as part of a royal castle (like the Ryugu Kingdom), but are smaller in scope and intended for temporary use regarding bigger criminals, who may eventually be transferred to Impel Down.

## Trivia

* Though extreme, the act of punishing those who have anything to do with piracy was also common in the real world, hence why many pirates used nicknames or [./https://onepiece.fandom.com/wiki/Epithet epithets] to protect those around them.
* Killing babies who have criminal parents or a criminal parent is considered a form of eugenics and at the height of the eugenics movement, there were instances where criminals were prevented from having children. This branch of Eugenics is breeding based on behavior, which is often can be a set of ideas criticized even among its supporters especially if is based on social stigma i.e. not all criminals could be considered "evil".
	+ Children do not always emulate their parents and this is one issue with this particular view on eugenics. This is actually displayed by the Monkey D. family, with Dragon not emulating his father who is a hero of the Marines, whereas Dragon is a revolutionary. While Marines are considered "good guys", Dragon is "the world's worst criminal".
	+ One consequence is also displayed by Portgas D. Ace. Monkey D. Garp wanted Ace and Luffy to become Marines, however Ace in grew up being hated for his existence as the Son of the Pirate King and this painted his perception of the world. This lead him to learn to follow in his father's footsteps and become a pirate and to support Luffy also becoming a pirate as they were "sons of criminals".
* Relatives of criminals such as Nico Robin, Portgas D. Ace and Monkey D. Luffy, who are hunted based on their relationships alone, are practices of Sippenhaft, which is to blame relatives of the criminal for sharing the same blood as the criminal and judge them guilty of the same crime.