institution/Wiki/justice/Deterrence.md

# Deterrence — the feedback loop

*The connection that turns the pipeline into a cycle.*

This is the module that makes policing **govern** rather than merely clean up. Everything else in
Justice reacts to one pawn: this reactor's *state* is the whole colony, and it feeds **back** into
every pawn's disposition. Crime that goes unanswered emboldens everyone a little; visible justice
deters everyone a little. The reason to punish is not just this prisoner — it is the message it sends
the rest, and here that message is a number they all read.

---

## The climate of order

Every map carries a `MapComponent_Deterrence` holding one value:

| | |
|---|---|
| **Range** | `0.0` (lawless) … `1.0` (iron) |
| **Baseline** | `0.5` — an ordinary colony |
| **Below baseline** | crime pays; dispositions run **hot** |
| **Above baseline** | order holds; dispositions run **cool** |

It is nudged by two events and, left alone, forgets.

### The nudges

| Event | Source | Nudge | Written by |
|---|---|---|---|
| A crime, unanswered | `Justice.RecordCrime(perp)` | **−0.08** | Justice, Gangs (fights) |
| Visible justice done | `Justice.RecordPunishment(map)` | **+0.12** | Justice (`Discipline.Punish`) |

Both clamp the result to `[0, 1]`. Note the asymmetry: **punishment (+0.12) outweighs crime (−0.08)
by 1.5×.** A colony that answers every offence does not merely break even — it ratchets *above*
baseline into "order holds" territory. This is the deterrence dividend, and it is deliberate: justice
seen to be done buys more order than the crime cost.

`RecordCrime` also writes the record — it increments `crimesCommitted` and stamps `lastCrimeTick` on
the perpetrator — so the same event that moves the climate is the event classification and parole
later see. `RecordPunishment` moves only the climate; the *record* side of punishment (the reform
shift) is [Discipline](Discipline-and-Reform.md)'s job.

### The drift

```
every 2500 ticks:  level = MoveTowards(level, 0.5, 0.0015)
```

Memory fades. With nothing happening, the climate creeps back toward ordinary at **0.0015 per step,
one step every 2500 ticks** — which works out to:

```
drift per in-game day = (60000 / 2500) * 0.0015 = 24 * 0.0015 = 0.036 / day
```

So a single unanswered crime (`−0.08`) takes roughly `0.08 / 0.036 ≈ 2.2 days` to heal on its own —
or one punishment (`+0.12`) to over-answer instantly. An iron colony you stop maintaining slides back
to baseline over about two weeks; it does not stay stern for free.

---

## The feedback — how it reaches every pawn

This is the loop. The climate is read back into `Propensity.Nurture` (in Core) as a multiplier:

```
DeterrenceFactor(pawn) = Lerp(1.3, 0.7, level)   // = 1.3 - 0.6 * level
Nurture(pawn) = ... * DeterrenceFactor(pawn)
```

| `level` | Factor | Effect on every pawn's disposition |
|---|---|---|
| 0.00 (lawless) | **1.300** | +30% hotter — crime pays, everyone feels it |
| 0.30 | 1.120 | +12% |
| **0.50 (baseline)** | **1.000** | **neutral — a default colony sits exactly here** |
| 0.70 | 0.880 | −12% |
| 0.90 | 0.760 | −24% |
| 1.00 (iron) | **0.700** | −30% cooler — order holds, everyone calms |

Two things to notice:

- **Baseline is the neutral point, by design.** A default colony sits at `0.5`, which is a factor of
  exactly `1.0` — ordinary order neither inflames nor calms. That symmetry is deliberate. If baseline
  ran hot (as an earlier tuning did), ordinary order would nudge propensity up, breed a little more
  crime, drop order, and feed a slow runaway. Neutral-at-baseline means only a colony that lets order
  *slide below* ordinary earns the hot multiplier, and only one that pushes *above* it earns the calm.
- **The swing is `0.7×` to `1.3×`, symmetric around `1.0`** — a `±30%` spread applied to *everyone's*
  nurture at once. This is the multiplier that makes catching one pawn matter to the disposition of
  the rest.

### JusticeBootstrap — reconnecting the loop across the mod boundary

Core keeps `Propensity.DeterrenceFactor` as a neutral seam — a `Func<Pawn,float>` that returns `1f`
until something fills it. Core alone never has to know Justice exists; that one seam is what lets Core
stay a dependency-free leaf while the deterrence loop runs *through* it.

At startup, `JusticeBootstrap` fills the seam:

```csharp
Propensity.DeterrenceFactor = pawn => {
    var d = pawn?.Map?.GetComponent<MapComponent_Deterrence>();
    return d != null ? Mathf.Lerp(1.3f, 0.7f, d.Level) : 1f;   // neutral (1.0) at baseline 0.5
};
```

So **only when Justice is installed** does the climate bend disposition; without it, Core reads a flat
`1.0` and pawns are indifferent to order. This is the deterrence feedback loop, reconnected across the
mod boundary without Core ever depending on the justice layer. (If the pawn is off-map — caravan, in
transit — there is no map component, and the factor falls back to a neutral `1.0`.)

---

## Worked example — a day at the institution

The colony starts at baseline `0.5` (factor `1.05`). Over one day:

| Step | Event | `level` | Factor |
|---|---|---|---|
| start | — | 0.50 | 1.050 |
| 1 | Prisoner A shanks a guard (crime, unanswered) | 0.42 | 1.106 |
| 2 | Prisoner B foments trouble (crime, unanswered) | 0.34 | 1.162 |
| 3 | Warden punishes A (`RecordPunishment`) | 0.46 | 1.078 |
| 4 | Warden punishes B (`RecordPunishment`) | 0.58 | 0.994 |
| overnight | nothing happens, drift ≈ −0.036 toward 0.5 | 0.544 | 1.019 |

Two crimes cost `−0.16`; two punishments returned `+0.24`. The colony ends the day at `0.58` —
**above** where it started — because punishment out-answers crime. Every pawn's disposition dipped
hotter as the crimes landed (`1.05 → 1.16`) and then cooled below neutral once order was reasserted
(`0.994`). By morning the drift has begun erasing the gain, and if nothing keeps the pressure on, the
colony sinks back to its slightly-hot baseline over the next couple of weeks.

That arc — hot when crime pays, cool when justice is seen, forgetful when neither happens — is the
whole reason discipline is not inert. You are not punishing a pawn; you are setting the temperature of
the room.

---

## How to play with deterrence

- **Answer crime, visibly and promptly.** Each punishment is worth 1.5 crimes of order. A colony that
  reliably punishes climbs *above* baseline and cools everyone; a colony that lets offences slide
  sinks below and heats everyone — a spiral, because hotter pawns commit more crime.
- **Don't coast on a past crackdown.** The climate drifts back to baseline at `0.036/day`. Order is a
  maintenance cost, not a one-time purchase.
- **Push past baseline if you want calm.** Neutral disposition needs `level ≈ 0.571`; ordinary
  (`0.5`) still runs 5% hot. A steady rhythm of caught-and-punished offences is what holds you there.
- **A lawless spell is self-feeding.** At `level 0.3` every pawn is `1.19×` more disposed; more crime
  follows, driving the level lower still. Break the cycle with punishments, not patience.

---

## For modders

```csharp
Justice.RecordCrime(perpetrator);   // -0.08 climate, +1 crime, stamps lastCrimeTick
Justice.RecordPunishment(map);      // +0.12 climate
float level = map.GetComponent<MapComponent_Deterrence>().Level;   // raw 0..1
```

`RecordCrime` is the writer any module calls when a pawn does something the colony would police —
Institution: Gangs calls it on rival fights, for instance. `RecordPunishment` is called by
`Discipline.Punish`. The component and statics live in the `Contraband` namespace (shared across the
suite since Justice's extraction from Contraband).

---

*Part of the **Institution** suite for RimWorld 1.6: Core · Contraband · Justice · Gangs. Developed
with substantial assistance from Claude (Anthropic).*