The dwarven legal system is broken. So badly broken that, whether explicitly through legislation or accidentally via a loophoole, it is possible for the victim of a crime to charged, tried and convicted with the crime committed against them, in defiance of all logic and reason. Even the dwarves f...
This situation exists in the real world. Some women are tried for being raped (for example in Afghanistan). You can take inspiration from it and say that people who are robbed can be tried for "unlawfull charity" if they don't have 5 witnesses to prove it was a real robbery.
I'm not sure if this is true, but I heard that in ancient Sparta, during the boys' training as warriors, one of the tasks was to steal from a house. If the boy failed and was captured, then he was beaten by the house owner, not for breaking in however, but rather for failing to escape with the loot. I didn't play DF, but I imagine sth like this could happen here: if somebody robbed you, then you are the guilty one, because you are so weak. We don't need weaklings. We punish them. The idea certainly needs expansion though, so I'm putting is as a comment, not an answer.
Maybe a caste system: in the real past, falcon caretakers were responsible for the birds in their care. Women are blamed for being raped: in the Christian Bible it is described that both perpetrator and victim are punished in some situations.
This is already easily possible in the real world, as @PerAlexandersson also indicated. However, in the Netherlands, if you get assaulted and fight back, there's a good chance you yourself will also be prosecuted for assault.
A person with certain security clearances or licensed to possess certain items will be charged in most cases if that information or those items are stolen from him or her.
@StephanBijzitter Not quite... Sort of... (I'm Dutch) Basically if you use violence in self-defense or to defend your property (say you catch a burglar in the act) you can be prosecuted for that violence, but as long as it is proportional (e.g don't keep beaten the guy after he surrenders) you will be acquitted. In most cases it doesn't even get to court. The charges will be dropped. Famous case last year: Jewelers wife shoots one of the robbers (dead) that is threatening her husband with a gun. She got charged for manslaughter and having an illegal gun. Walked on the 1st, got fined for 2nd.
You get that kind of thing in the real world, in certain countries which follow the ... ahem ... law of peace aka word of god ... or something like that.
@SpaceLizard: Bad example. The rape is probably not considered a crime but the woman’s seducing and flaunting (not my opinion, just a viewpoint) is. As in “She obviously wanted to have sex, she was flaunting herself in an unlawful way and that poor man just couldn’t help himself!” (this convenient argument even allows the husband to blame the rape-victim for adultery)
@SpaceLizard. This has been explained in an article that I cannot now find. Under Sharia law, rape is illegal. Adultery is also illegal but needs four witnesses or a confession. In misogamist countries, rape is not recognised so a woman reporting rape is treated as confessing adultery or extra-marital sex for which she can be prosecuted. Unless the man also confesses or the woman finds four male, Moslem witnesses, he cannot be prosecuted.
Homeless are also afforded the courtesy of being arrested for all sorts of laws specifically designed to prosecute them out of the cities they hope to find refuge in. This is not a "what if" question. This kind of thing already really does happen.
Those are so called "quality of life crimes". Every great and generous society should have them [end snark].
Discussion on question by Philip Rowl…
Discussion on question by Philip Rowl…