Should hostage takers be punished? What leniency should be shown to kidnappers?

Hostage takers should unquestionably be punished and little leniency should be shown to them. The reason for this is that hostage taking is a crime and it endangers the lives of others. In addition, if hostage takers are not punished, this will encourage other people to commit this crime because they will not be persecuted. Lastly, it is perfectly allowed for the hostages to forgive their captors. However, justice still has to be served and they still must be punished.

Hostage takers should be punished because it is a crime. Hostage taking is very similar to kidnapping. In addition, kidnappers are punished for their crime with little leniency. Therefore, hostage takers should be punished with little leniency. Moreover, hostage takers harm the lives of the victims and their families that they take hostage of. First of all, the hostages are usually subject to poor conditions and treatment and are constantly threatened by death.

Footage of the 1991 Sacramento hostage crisis

Hostage Calm - December 12, 2009

The Avenue of Flags from Kraynak's Parking Lot

In fact, hostages have been known to be tortured and killed by their captors. For example, Nick Berg, an innocent hostage was beheaded by his captors. Hostage takers should definitely be punished because they commit a serious crime by endangering the lives of innocent people.

Finally, hostage takers should be persecuted because not doing so would encourage people to take hostages. In the event that kidnappings would remain unpunished, it would send a signal to all potential kidnappers that these criminal offences would invoke no punishment or that the potential punishment would be very small. Once this occurs, people would have nothing to stop them kidnapping others and they will assume that kidnapping is fine. As a result, people might resort to kidnapping as a method to settle their problems with each other. This would probably cause a large amount of chaos as people would feel...