he’s a member of that corp , you attacked him , so they lower your standings . has nothing to do with him being a CRIMINAL .
you podded him , which has a larger standings hit than aggression or ship destruction .
your actions have consequences . while i don’t agree with this mechanic , it’s been in-game forever , and you should have been aware of it .
As with many things in EVE, I’m aware of it NOW.
NPC corps are supposed to be mainstream. Most are state-aligned in some way. Lorewise, it makes no sense that they would want to protect criminals hiding in their ranks.
Heck, they ought to give a standings BONUS to people who remove criminals from their ranks…
the criminal status is irrelevant . you’d lose standings even if you were defending yourself , in null-sec or wormhole , or mercilessly podding a < 2 week old noob who had a weapons malfunction , as your case …
lore-wise , SWA has no prohibition on their members pirating or being outlaws , but they do take a dim view of those that attack it’s member . enjoy your lower refine rate at their stations , and losing access to their excellent agents . next time you’ll think twice !!
View it this way: your corp is like your family. Now, you might have a family member who is a notorious criminal. He’s a really bad man, but you still love him because he is family. Now if some random person drove by and shot him in the face you will not like that person, even if he did something judged right be society.
That’s the way the NPC corp views you. You shot one of theirs, it might have been legal, but you still shot one of theirs and this is their way of telling you they do not approve.