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Kidnap

Inside the Ransom Business

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Kidnap

Written by: Anja Shortland
Narrated by: Henrietta Meire
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About this listen

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.

©2019 Anja Shortland (P)2019 Tantor Crime Criminology Insurance International Relations Political Science Politics & Government Social Sciences True Crime Business Disappearance
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I got this book intending on only listening to a few chapters of interest. I ended up listening in entirety and intend to listen again! It was written in an educated elegant style, which the narrator captured perfectly. The actual info contained about negotiations, consequences, and economic fallout was really eye-opening. I do not know of any other way to get a lot of these facts. I would very easily buy another book by this author again.

Yikes! a scary world of Kidnapping!

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This book was interesting, but on the intellectual side. Lots of insightful examples, so ultimately worth a listen, but I tuned out plenty. Wasn’t fond of the narrator.

Intellectual

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