Crime creates demand for insurance but supplying insurance can inadvertently promote crime. How do insurers reduce uncertainty, pay-outs, and their exposure to extreme and correlated losses from crime? We find that insurers manage and mitigate losses by engaging with insureds, governments, extra-legal organisations, and third parties to create polycentric governance systems. These structures are highly dynamic: criminals and insurers constantly innovate to protect their profits. The lecture will analyse such governance ecosystems drawing on examples from kidnap and hijack for ransom, art theft and ransomware.