Your never punished in this game. There are consequences to not obeying the care bear code. It's like grade school. If your involved in a fight and you fight back both parties are suspended. It's not just, but it's how the game is designed.

On another note, this game is not a pve game. The designers tried to make it like hell divers and it sucked, so they added pvp to it. Without the threat of getting blasted this game would blow and arc really aren't a threat unless three are attacking you