History Main / CantGetAwayWithNuthin

** Of course, it'd be hard to spot bruises under his suit, and any flesh damage to the visible areas would [[spoiler: pale in comparison to the hideous mutilation]].

* Explicitly avoided by CoryDoctorow in his book ''LittleBrother'', as shown [[http://www.locusmag.com/Perspectives/2009/11/cory-doctorow-teen-sex.html here]].

* Sandry gets hit with this in ''[[Literature/CircleOfMagic The Will of the Empress]]''. She puts off reading her accounts from her estates in Namorn once, and Duke Vedris very sternly reminds her how shameful it is for her to neglect them. Bear in mind that she hasn't been to Namorn since before she was ten and that she's doing an excellent job helping Vedris run ''Emelan'', to the point that everyone thinks he's going to name her heir, and her Namornese cousin is too proud to ever directly ask for her help. When she goes to Namorn with her old friends, they roundly upbraid her any time she's a little less than reasonable or there's some visible reminder that she's noble, like when she hires a maid to save the woman from an abusive husband and the ''other servants'' are fretting over her consequence, or when she loses her composure during an argument. Of course, Tris, Daja, and Briar are still allowed to be as tart and snippy at they like.[[note]]With the caveat that Briar has PTSD. But when Daja starts actually ''throwing'' things, Tris is highly sympathetic once she knows the reason.[[/note]]

* Explicitly avoided by CoryDoctorow in his book ''Little Brother'', as shown [[http://www.locusmag.com/Perspectives/2009/11/cory-doctorow-teen-sex.html here]].

* In ''DannyPhantom'', the act of him cheating on a test, has the repercussions of (in the future) Danny becoming one of the most evil ghosts around by fusing with Vlad's ghostly half, killing most of his family and friends, grievously harming the other ghosts, and generally making the future pretty fucked up. Sure, it gets {{Ret Con}}ned, but all this happened because he '''''cheated on a test'''''.
** They did the same thing one or two episodes earlier, when he started finally defending himself from the bullies by using his powers to make a fool out of them. [[{{Anvilicious}} Nickelodeon]] [[PersonalGainHurts REALLY]] [[TheComplainerIsAlwaysWrong has a thing against]] [[AmbitionIsEvil heroes using their powers to get ahead in life]]. Just ask JimmyNeutron or [[FairlyOddParents Timmy Turner...]]

* DCAU - WesternAnimation/BatmanTheAnimatedSeries: Parodied at the episode The ClockKing: when Hill proposed Fugate to break his schedule so he can be more relaxed. Fugate, a ScheduleFanatic disciplinarian with BlueAndOrangeMorality, sees Hill as TheFundamentalist would see someone proposing him to ''sin''. Notice that when Fugate was at the park at 3:15, instead of in his office as he had planned, he was very nervous, waiting for certain doom. It’s only when Fugate dares to relax when the DisasterDominoes that will ruin his life start.

* ''TinyToonAdventures'' parodied the above, in which Buster, Plucky, and Hamton all got drunk off of a single beer (which they shared, so it would have really been more like a third each, making the plot even more ridiculous), and then proceeded to demonstrate the dangers of drunk driving by driving a car off a cliff.

Compare FelonyMisdemeanor.

** [[FridgeLogic Well, if they needed an Indian, why didn't they have Tommy take it down?]] [[note]] UnfortunateImplications aside, it makes valid sense. Jason David Frank, and by extension, Tommy, is Native American. It would make things much less of a hassle for the Rangers.[[/note]]

* WesternAnimation/EdEddNEddy Can't Get Away With Nothin', but they're the ''only'' ones. Most of the other kids, particularly Kevin and ''especially'' [[MemeticMolester the Kankers]], [[KarmaHoudini get away with]] bad acts, even when there is not [[ThisMeansWar a precipitating provocation]].

** Interestingly enough, Zero Tolerance was originally designed as a response to the opposite of this trope, [[KarmaHoudini Karma Houdini]]. The idea came from conservative scholars in the 1980's, only back then it was called the "broken windows" theory. And the problem it was trying to solve was that there was a rash of vandalism and broken windows in New Jersey, and the culprits got clean away with it without any punishment; this then led to even more serious crimes that also got unpunished. So the conservative scholars theorized that if you leave even one window broken without punishment, there's no longer any incentive for citizens not to commit crimes that are even worse. That's the reason ''why'' Zero Tolerance is "stupid", as the above poster put it: in schools, it translates into the idea that if you leave even one butter knife unpunished, there's no longer any incentive for students not to bring real knives to do something really wrong with them.

* An EnforcedTrope during the TheGoldenAgeOfHollywood, where the Hays Code prohibited any sort of KarmaHoudini.

** This was also the policy under the HaysCode in TheGoldenAgeOfHollywood, with one of the most notable examples of this type of editing getting applied to TheBadSeed.
* One 12 year old girl [[http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5gmCOkLLnwBYt4k6gedzLVoXDWaoAD9ERO9H00]] from New York is certainly feeling this trope's full effects after being arrested and even put in handcuffs, after ''doodling on her desk'' in washable ink. Graffiti ''must'' be a high priority crime in NYC. [[SarcasmMode Way to win]] public support, get them while they're young offenders eh?

The InvertedTrope is CantGetInTroubleForNuthin.

* ''HardCandy'' is a strange case in that its two protagonists represent two different crimes and only one is punished while the other's fate is left open. [[spoiler: I guess the universe had a hard time choosing whether or not to punish the perverted child molester or the deranged sociopath]].

** Jo refuses to forgive Amy for burning her book (in revenge for Jo going to a play without her), when Amy sincerely repents and begs for forgiveness. The next day, Amy nearly drowns from falling through the ice on a river when skating with Laurie.

** Amy acts like a perfect lady on a visit with their aunts and Jo acts bitchy for no real reason. Turns out they were deciding during that very meeting which girl to invite on a trip to Europe, so Amy is chosen.
** Some of the boys in Little Men share a cigar and beer one night and set the room on fire.

** In ''VideoGame/FalloutNewVegas'', just having a "Shunned" reputation with either of the major factions is enough for them to send hit squads after you. As above, they are psychic and will immediately all know of your wrongdoing.

* Similar to the ''Elder Scrolls'' example above, ''VideoGame/{{Fallout 3}}'' has plenty of this. Not only will you have Regulators hunting you down if you do bad things, but all of the [=NPCs=] are [[ClairvoyantSecurityForce psychic]] enough to know it too, even if they don't immediately turn hostile. For example, if you kill everyone in Arefu, Lucy West in Megaton will still say something to the effect of "I heard about your little killing spree in Arefu. Get away from me!", even if there was no one around to witness it. Speaking of Megaton, decide to nuke it and ''everyone'', [[spoiler:including James]], will somehow know it was you. And of course, there's Three Dog, who [[WhatTheHellHero always manages to find out]] whenever you take the evil option in a quest.

* This is true for bullying victims. Bullies always get a slap on the wrist and the victim were to ever retaliate, the victim gets punished and the bullies go off scot-free. [[SarcasmMode Great.]]
** Made even worse by the fact that sometimes the bullies get congratulated as the teachers sometimes believe the victim did something to make the bullies pick on them.