Punishment
Punishment is the authoritative imposition of something unpleasant or negative on a Sim in response to crimes or poor behavior. Fines have always been the most common form of punishment in The Sims series, but more recent games have featured other forms of punishment.
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Military School
In The Sims, if a child's school grades dropped to an F (failing) and stayed there for a number of days, the child would be taken to military school. Subsequently, they were no longer playable, could not be retrieved or even viewed by the player, and the character was permanently lost. Other children in the household whose grades were at a D- or above were allowed to remain.
Repossession
If a Sim does not pay their bills on time, the government will repossess items with a value equivalent to the outstanding debt. A repossession agent is sent to recover the items from a Sims house. Build and Buy mode are disabled during this time to prevent you from thwarting the repo man's attempts to take your items. Sims react to repossessions in the same way they react to having items stolen by a burgler.
Visit from the Social Worker
The social worker appears in all three main installments of the Sims series. One of her main responsibilities is to remove babies, toddlers and children from households where they are being neglected, e.g. if they are left at home alone or allowed to starve. Once alerted by a young Sim's distress she will remove all babies, toddlers and children from a household, even if only one was being neglected; the only exception being The Sims, where only babies can be taken away due to neglect. In The Sims 2 she also replaces the military school function from The Sims, as she removes any children from the household whose grades drop to an F (the equivalent teen punishment for poor grades is the loss of a part-time job and/or being unable to go to college). In The Sims babies taken away due to neglect are then permanently lost to the player. In The Sims 2 and The Sims 3, young Sims who are removed are not permanently lost, but are available for adoption by other families. However, families who have already had one or more children taken away by the social worker are unable to adopt from that time onwards, meaning that they cannot simply re-adopt their own children once they have been taken away; however, any children naturally conceived after the social worker's intervention will be allowed to remain, provided their parents do not neglect them. The social worker will never intervene on behalf of a teen or older Sim.
Detention
In The Sims 3, if a student slacks off in school, he/she will receive detention. Detention forces a student to stay an extra two hours at school which can interfere with part time jobs and after school activities. During this time, the student will be unable to influence their grades and will receive the negative detention moodlet. Students with higher grades are less likely to get detention.
Jail
In The Sims, Sims in the top levels of the Criminal career track could randomly receive a career chance card, the potential negative outcome of which would result in them being sent to jail (off-screen) for a period of game time.
Sims who are in the Criminal career track in The Sims 3 run the risk of being sent to jail every time they go to work. If a criminal is sent to jail, they cannot be promoted that day and job performance may suffer. While in prison, Sims can choose to work out to improve Athleticism, befriend other inmates, play dominos, or simply serve their time peacefully.
Although they will not be sent to jail, teen Sims in The Sims 2 who are caught sneaking out with friends after dark without receiving parental permission, and their equivalents in The Sims 3 who break the town's 11pm curfew, run the risk of be caught by the police and escorted home in a squad car, resulting in a stern lecture from their parents and a negative memory of being arrested.
Parental Punishment
If The Sims 3: Generations is installed, children and teenagers can be punished by their parents. If a parent sees their child doing something wrong such as playing a prank, being mean, or skipping school they will automatically walk over and punish their child (you cannot stop them from doing this). Mild mischief will only result in a scolding that gives the child a bad moodlet, but serious or repeated rule breaking can result in losing video game privileges or being grounded (unable to leave the house except for school). The child's punishment will last until they earn their parent's forgiveness or grow up. To earn their parents forgiveness, the child must do chores such as cleaning or doing their homework.
The Stocks
In The Sims Medieval, minor crimes are punished by a trip to the stocks. A trip to the stocks will result in the negative Humiliated by Stocks buff which lasts for five hours after release. While imprisoned in the stocks, Sims are vulnerable to being pelted with eggs and tomatos which will worsen the Humiliated by Stocks buff.
Execution
In The Sims Medieval, major crimes are punished by execution in the form of being fed to the pit beast. Sims who are high level heroes may be able to survive a trip to the pit beast, but most sims will die as a result of execution.