ISBN Kidnap ( Inside the Ransom Business ) 224 pages English

Kidnap for ransom is a lucrative but tricky business. Millions of people live travel and work in areas with significant kidnap risks yet kidnaps of foreign workers local VIPs and tourists are surprisingly rare and the vast majority of abductions are peacefully resolved - often for remarkably low ransoms. In fact the market for hostages is so well ordered that the crime is insurable. This is a puzzle: ransoming a hostage is the world's most precarious trade. What would be the right price for your loved one - and can you avoid putting others at risk by paying it? What prevents criminals from maltreating hostages? How do you (safely) pay a ransom? And why would kidnappers release a potential future witness after receiving their money? Kidnap: Inside the Ransom Business uncovers how a group of insurers at Lloyd's of London have solved these thorny problems for their customers. Based on interviews with industry insiders (from both sides) as well as hostage stakeholders it uncovers an intricate and powerful private governance system ordering transactions between the legal and the criminal economies.