Uncommon Commentary #386: A Capital Suggestion

It ought to be a capital offense to co-operate in any way with any criminal, such as paying a ransom. (It evidently is already illegal to pay the ransom-demands of foreign terrorists.) The purpose of this seemingly draconian measure (of which the people would, of course, have to be made well-aware) would be to negate the leverage that the criminal gains over the law-abiding by threatening to kill whoever doesn't do as he says. (Bear in mind that the paying of a ransom, anyway, does not by any means guarantee that a kidnapper will return his victim alive.)  This approach could be abandoned if it failed to work as well in practice as it does in theory, but it seems worth a try.