Ultimately the goal is that nobody gets kidnapped. One way to ensure that is to ensure ransoms can't be paid, by threatening criminal penalties to anyone who p

Ultimately the goal is that nobody gets kidnapped. One way to ensure that is to ensure ransoms can't be paid, by threatening criminal penalties to anyone who pays a ransom. Of course this means if your child is kidnapped, you have a choice between going to jail, or receiving one finger or toe per week in the mail for the next half-year or so. (That is, if you're a generally law-abiding citizen who doesn't know the ins and outs of money laundering and you're pretty sure you'll get caught. If you think you can make the payment and get away with it, this changes your calculus.) When your kid is horribly murdered as a result of your unwillingness to break the law, it's a cold comfort that the law's wise policy will theoretically eventually save hundreds or thousands of others' kids from the same fate. I find it fascinating that it's illegal to pay to help a child who's in physical danger of being tortured / murdered, but apparently not illegal to pay to prevent simple doxxing. It seems like it ought to be the reverse, the law should show mercy to an individual person trying to save the life of their relative, but be more strict when it comes to a large business or institution trying to prevent merely economic or informational harms.