ABSTRACT
Crisis and hostage negotiations are a series of communications between the law enforcement negotiator and the person in crisis (subject). These communications are a means to achieve goals on both sides. The goals of the captive-taker, or subject, can span a wide range (e.g. monetary gain, escape, expression of rage, revenge). This is because barricaded hostage and crisis incidents can reflect either instrumental or expressive motivations on the part of the subject (e.g. Call, 1999; Vecchi et al., 2005). ‘True’ hostage situations reflect instrumental goals of the subject. In these incidents, the subject has substantive demands, and s/he needs law enforcement, for example, to bargain for hostages in order to have those demands met. The communication and behaviour of subjects in these situations is calculated and methodical. Hostages serve as leverage in a negotiated transaction with law enforcement. In contrast, crisis situations reflect expressive goals of the subject. Illustrative are domestic disputes, workplace/school violence events or crisis situations involving the mentally ill in which the subject has barricaded himself/herself and others from law enforcement. Subjects in crisis situations do not necessarily have any substantive demands, nor do they need law enforcement to accomplish their goals. Further, subjects’ communications and behaviours are more erratic and emotion-based in non-hostage crisis situations (Noesner and Webster, 1997).
