Crisis Negotiation Research Articles

현장 사례를 통한 위기협상 발전 방향에 관한 연구 - 협상가 인터뷰를 중심으로

Since the 2010s, negotiation practices within the Korean Police Force have seen substantial advancements. Negotiation teams managed by each provincial police department and those at the national investigation headquarters handle initial responses at scenes. The increased visibility and recognized importance of police negotiation teams have led to more frequent dispatches of negotiation officers and significant successes, such as in the hostage situations in Hapcheon, South Gyeongsang Province, and a bakery in Gangnam District, Seoul. However, a persistent preference for tactical responses over trust in crisis negotiation often dominates on the ground, indicating the need for further improvements. The National Police Agency conducts in-depth training sessions biannually to enhance the capabilities of professional negotiators, while provincial police departments focus on basic negotiation training through local educational institutions. Nonetheless, there is a significant shortfall in the training provided to commanders overseeing these operations, resulting in inadequate communication. The reduction of training programs at police educational institutions since 2024 has raised concerns. This study aims to analyze opinions from scholars and practitioners who were directly involved in or active in crisis negotiations, such as the 2017 Hapcheon hostage incident, to identify the challenges encountered in the field and suggest potential improvements.

군사경찰의 대테러 위기 협상 발전방안

Negotiations by police agencies are activities to resolve situations through dialogue and compromise rather than physical forces such as forced suppression in various crisis situations. Police negotiations have been developed in the United States since the 1970s as the need for measures to minimize sacrifices in crisis situations was raised after unsuccessful outcomes following suppression-centered operations in the process of resolving terrorism and various hostage situations. The Republic of Korea operated a negotiation team as one of the dedicated organizations for responding to the 1988 Seoul Olympics terrorist threats, and the negotiation team was cultivated in the National Police Agency. The Korean police negotiation team has been expanded and evolved from anti-terrorism negotiations to crisis negotiations in response to changing domestic security environment and is actively operating in crisis situations such as various crimes and suicide. Negotiations by the military police has been mainly focused on countering terrorism and their approaches and tactics in various military crisis situations have not been discussed so far. This study was conducted for the purpose of diagnosing problems of the military police negotiation team by analyzing its operation status and deriving a development plan. In particular, by clarifying the types of military police negotiations, it was intended to establish a foundation for differentiating negotiation techniques that are applicable not only in response to terrorism but also in various military-related crisis situations.

Suicidal Crisis Negotiations: An Investigation of Situational Characteristics, Hooks and Triggers

Crisis negotiation teams have previously been described as “gatekeepers” to suicidal individuals, with research showing that these are amongst the most common calls negotiators attend to. Despite this, the situational features of these calls and the communicative dynamics that may lead to the safe resolution of suicidal crises, remain poorly understood. Using a mixed method approach, situational characteristics across four suicidal incident types were examined, and “hooks” and “triggers” that were common in each incident type were identified. The results revealed some consistencies across incident types regarding incident location, and the mental health and substance use histories of subjects. Inconsistencies were observed for communication method used, weapons involved, and resolution details. Numerous hooks and triggers were identified for each incident type. The findings increase our understanding of suicidal crises and have implications for negotiator training (e.g., the features of actual suicidal incidents can inform the content of scenario-based training).

Crisis negotiation techniques in interactional context: Managing a suicide threat in an emergency service call

Background: Previous research reveals that standard crisis negotiation techniques are useful in assisting suicidal persons, but how routine interactional procedures impact their implementation has not yet been sufficiently examined. Aim: This paper investigates how routine interactional procedures impact the effectiveness of crisis negotiation techniques in an emergency services call involving a suicide announcement. Methods: A publicly released emergency service call was transcribed and analyzed using the qualitative technique of conversation analysis. Results: The call taker used crisis negotiation techniques such as maximizing autonomy, displaying active listening, and distracting the caller to keep them on the phone. These techniques were implemented successfully through routine interactional procedures such as topic shifts, requests, and listener responses. Interrupting or overlapping the caller's speech or replacing requests with demands were less effective. Discussion: Instruction in the routine procedures of interaction may be as important as instruction in standard crisis negotiation techniques when training call takers to handle suicide announcement calls. Conclusions: Qualitative analysis of suicide announcement calls can be an effective means of learning how crisis negotiation techniques are used in practice and how emergency call takers can help prevent suicide by keeping callers on the phone and persuading them to abandon their suicidal plans.

The Politics of Delay in Crisis Negotiations

States often intentionally stall crisis negotiations, hoping to build arms or attract allies to achieve a more favorable bargaining position. Why do their adversaries tolerate delay in some cases, but attack upon delay in others? I argue that this is because states cannot perfectly distinguish between intentional and unavoidable delays. This presents a strategic tension: a state prefers to attack preventively if the delay is intentional, but prefers to avoid costly war otherwise. To study this tension, I build a formal model of crisis bargaining with delay tactics, showing that rising states may mask bargaining delays behind natural exogenous delays to complete a peaceful power shift. I find that uncertainty over the source of delay may decrease the risk of war under some conditions, and increase the risk of war under others. I discuss the implications of my theoretical model for the causes of war and power shifts in historical cases.

Psychological Techniques in Crisis Negotiation

Aim: Crisis negotiation is a very effective police tool for the successful and peaceful resolution of various types of crisis interventions, with different types of interventions being the focus of this review. Materials and Methods: One of the most effective communication skills negotiators use is active listening. Active listening involves focusing attention on what the person is saying without judging, while non-verbally and verbally letting the person know that he is being listened to. In the negotiation context, it calms the perpetrator, encourages him to talk, enables rapport building between the negotiator and the perpetrator, and encourages a change in the perpetrator’s behaviour. Results: Techniques that are most effective in crisis negotiation are paraphrasing, mirroring, “I” messages, minimal encouragements, pause, open-ended questions and emotion labelling. The paper also describes important factors for the effective use of active listening in crisis negotiation. Conclusion: Important factors for the effective use of active listening in crisis negotiation are non-judgmental acceptance, rapport building, maintaining dignity, authenticity, and empathy.

Crisis Negotiation in Suicidal Crisis Interventions

Suicidalno ponašanje vodeći je uzrok ozljeđivanja i smrtnosti svih dobnih skupina u svijetu. Policijski službenici često se susreću s osobama koje prijete oduzimanjem vlastitog života. Službenici koji su educirani, odnosno specijalizirani za takva postupanja i čije se intervencije u najvećem postotku odnose upravo na postupanja prema potencijalnim počiniteljima samoubojstva jesu policijski pregovarači. Krizno pregovaranje jedan je od najučinkovitijih policijskih alata koji se i u praksi i prema istraživanjima kontinuirano i dosljedno pokazuje kao vrlo uspješan način rješavanja različitih kriznih intervencija – uključujući i pokušaje samoubojstva. Cilj ovog rada jest predstavljanje djelovanja policijskih pregovarača u situacijama pokušaja samoubojstava. U radu su prikazane osnovne tehnike i strategija postupanja prema potencijalnim počiniteljima samoubojstva, kao i karakteristike pregovarača te upozoravajući znakovi u ponašanju počinitelja. Opisana su i dva primjera iz prakse te prijedlozi unapređenja policijskog pregovaranja u Hrvatskoj.

Critical Incident Management: Strengthening the Relationship Between Crisis Negotiations and Tactical Teams

Critical Incident Management: Strengthening the Relationship Between Crisis Negotiations and Tactical Teams

군 위기협상 발전 방안에 대한 연구

Terrorism continues to occur in all parts of the world, unpredictable, and unpredictable. In addition, crimes against humanity continue, with terrorists planning negotiations for their own benefit and taking innocent people hostage in order to gain an advantage in those negotiations. On the other hand, in the event of such a terrorist attack, if the mission execution system and experts for crisis negotiations are not trained and prepared, the damage will not only end with our terrorism, but will also read the lives of people. However, in the case of terrorism that occurs in the military, the level of terrorism that occurs in the military causes more damage than that of the civilian sector, so it is necessary to prepare in advance for military crisis negotiations, but it has not developed beyond the simple theoretical part. In addition, since the methods of terrorism are constantly changing and are carried out in various ways, it is necessary to examine the specifics of crisis negotiation methods for the practical performance of missions, such as suppressing terrorism and preventing human casualties, through crisis negotiations in such a terrorist situation.

A Cry for “Help”? How Crisis Negotiators Overcome Suicidal People's Resistance to Offers of Assistance

This paper explores how police negotiators offer “help” to suicidal persons in crisis. The phrase “a cry for help” is long associated with suicide ideation, and “help” is a key offer made in crisis situations. However, we know little about how “help” is formulated, and received, in crisis encounters as they actually unfold. Fourteen cases (31 h) of UK-based police crisis negotiations with (suicidal) individuals in crisis were transcribed and analyzed using conversation analysis. Our analysis shows that persons in crisis typically reject negotiators’ offers of “help.” However, when negotiators propose that (and how) matters can be “sorted out,” or refocus “help” as actions that the person in crisis can do themselves, progress is made. The paper contributes to the growing literature on the management of resistance in institutional encounters, and to our understanding of how negotiators may minimize or de-escalate resistance in crisis communication.

Perceptions of Leadership Importance: Evidence from the CIA’s President’s Daily Brief

Are leaders perceived as important actors during conflict, or are they discounted because of domestic institutions and international structure? We exploit recently declassified CIA President’s Daily Briefs to construct a cross-national, weekly measure of how intelligence analysts perceive foreign leader importance in conflict and diplomacy. We estimate perceptions of leader importance at crisis onset, crisis escalation, war, and war termination in over 16,000 statistical models that overcome selection and endogeneity concerns common in existing studies of leadership and conflict. Leaders are not perceived to matter equally at every stage of conflict. They are seen to matter most during crisis negotiations when conflicts can either de-escalate to peace or escalate to war. But they are not perceived to matter for crisis onset. We find that leaders of heavily constrained regimes are seen as no more important at any stage of the conflict process than they are in peacetime. Leaders of moderately constrained regimes are perceived to matter for crisis escalation. Finally, leaders of weakly constrained regimes are seen as important at nearly every stage of conflict relative to peacetime. Our findings suggest that even if leaders are perceived to matter for conflict on average, domestic institutions and international structure plausibly constrain leaders more at some stages of the conflict process than others. We contribute to the quantification of historical documents by illustrating how researchers can combine data selection, historiography, measurement, and statistical modeling to draw stronger inferences.

Language in Crisis Negotiations: The Rizal Park Hostage-Taking Incident

This paper is aimed at examining the Rizal Park hostage-taking incident from the lens of forensic linguistics that looks into crime management. The incident happened on August 23, 2010 in Manila, Philippines when a tourist bus loaded with 20 Hong Kong nationals was hijacked by a disgruntled former officer of the Philippine National Police by the name of Rolando Mendoza. Employing the DIAMOND model of Grubb et al. (2020), FBI’s Behavioral Change Stairway Model (BCSM), and Hammer’s (2007) S.A.F.E. model, the study analyzed the stages in the negotiation process employed by the negotiators, the relationship-building process and the communicative dynamics of the hostage-taking incident. Findings revealed that the stages of negotiation in the DIAMOND model were not all carried out. Following the BCSM model, the negotiators were not able to build empathy with the hostage-taker. Communicative dynamics as reflected in the S.A.F.E. model was not likewise successful as pertinent information was not transmitted with maximum effectiveness. The poor handling of the incident and the failure of the negotiation led to the eventual death of innocent people, including the hostage-taker himself and the issuance by the Hong Kong government of a ‘black’ travel alert for the Philippines. It is hoped that with this study, a more effective and efficient way of managing crime incidents in the country can be carried out to avoid further disasters. Keywords: language in crisis negotiation; hostage-taking; Manila hostage crisis; Rizal Park; crime management

Preparing to talk: Behind-the-scenes planning between negotiators for subsequent communication with persons in crisis

Police negotiators work in small units or teams. In a crisis negotiation, one of the team becomes the ‘primary’ negotiator and talks with the person in crisis. However, because the person in crisis may refuse to participate, and because several negotiators are co-present, there are multiple opportunities for negotiators to talk between themselves, ‘behind-the-scenes’. We used conversation analysis to analyse these interstitial sequences in a corpus of audio-recorded UK suicide crisis negotiations. Our analysis focused on how negotiators talk about what, when, and how to communicate to people in crisis. We found that negotiators evaluated different communication technologies and modalities (e.g., telephone versus face-to-face) and physical locations (e.g., standing on the ground versus on a roof) in terms of their affordances for future interactions and impact on previous ones. Second, negotiators (re)formulated what and how to communicate with persons in crisis and evaluated hypothetical consequences. Third, they evaluated their progress in terms of specific (in)effective words and phrases. The analysis shows how negotiators, in contrast to individual post hoc reflection, come to share live scrutiny of their negotiation practice. Overall, the paper augments what we know about the low frequency but high-stakes activity of crisis negotiation.

\u201cThe More You Do, the More Comfortable You Feel\u201d: the Police Hostage and Crisis Negotiator Journey

Hostage and crisis negotiators are specialist police officers utilised internationally by police forces to resolve hostage and crisis incidents. Whilst the role has been heavily documented in some parts of the world (namely the United States of America), there is a lack of literature relating to the organisational and operational processes and procedures in place for police negotiators in the United Kingdom. Equally, there is limited research that has explored the experiences of negotiators who perform an essential function within a variety of life-or-death situations with a view to understanding how officers transition from trainee to qualified negotiators. This paper outlines the development of a grounded theoretical model that depicts the “hostage and crisis negotiator journey,” as represented by English negotiators. Interviews were conducted with 15 negotiators from nine police forces in England and a conceptual model was developed including five primary, 12 secondary, and 32 tertiary categories. The negotiator journey is chronologically recounted by means of the five main primary categories identified: (1) ‘Why? Reasons for entering (and remaining within) the negotiator world’, (2) ‘Who and how? The negotiator profile and selection’, (3) ‘Negotiator training’, (4) ‘Operational negotiator roles’, and (5) ‘Negotiator welfare and support’. This paper demonstrates one of the first attempts to empirically map the processes and procedures in place for negotiators in England and the findings are discussed in line with their potential implications for police policy and practice.

Examining the Effectiveness of Crisis Negotiation Specialized Education Program in KOREAN POLICE Investigation Academy

Examining the Effectiveness of Crisis Negotiation Specialized Education Program in KOREAN POLICE Investigation Academy

Should Police Negotiators Ask to “Talk” or “Speak” to Persons in Crisis? Word Selection and Overcoming Resistance to Dialogue Proposals

ABSTRACT This article explores whether and how word selection makes some proposals easier to resist than others. Fourteen cases (31 hours) of UK-based police crisis negotiation were analyzed exploring (a) how negotiators use the verbs talk or speak when proposing “dialogue,” and (b) to what extent the strength of resistance of persons in crisis toward the proposals may be attributed to this word selection. We found that persons in crisis were more likely to overtly reject proposals formulated with talk compared to speak. And while negotiators used both talk/speak when proposing dialogue, negotiators and persons in crisis associated talk with more evaluative stances toward dialogue compared to speak. This article has implications for the study of word selection in interaction and for crisis negotiation and other professions where “talk” is promoted as the solution. Data in British English.

Correction to: Understanding the Prevalence and Situational Characteristics of Hostage and Crisis Negotiation in England: an Analysis of Pilot Data from the National Negotiator Deployment Database

Correction to: Understanding the Prevalence and Situational Characteristics of Hostage and Crisis Negotiation in England: an Analysis of Pilot Data from the National Negotiator Deployment Database

Identifying Points of Engagement Versus Disengagement When Consulting During Crisis Negotiations: A Flexible Model for Applying the Ethics Code

Application of the American Psychological Association (APA) Ethical Principles of Psychologists and Code of Conduct (American Psychological Association 2018) to consultation during crisis negotiations by psychological consultants is an emerging area. Common and emerging ethical dilemmas not addressed in previous works are discussed including use of third-party intermediaries, bounds of psychological principles that are applied to negotiation strategies, and tactical disengagement by law enforcement and SWAT teams. A flexible model along a continuum of the psychological consultant’s participation based upon ethical considerations is suggested. Concerns about the psychological consultant’s proximity to decision-making regarding “going tactical” is moot when experienced teams have a shared understanding of the various roles of team members and consulting mental health professionals are mindful of the “ceiling” of ethical decision-making based upon the General Principles of the Code of Conduct.

Understanding the Prevalence and Situational Characteristics of Hostage and Crisis Negotiation in England: an Analysis of Pilot Data from the National Negotiator Deployment Database

The following paper outlines the findings from an exploratory analysis of the hostage and crisis negotiator deployment database that was piloted within Norfolk and Suffolk Constabularies prior to national rollout of a centralised and standardised online recording mechanism for negotiator deployments across the majority of police forces within the UK. The research utilised a descriptive research design, whereby the secondary data from an initial 24-month recording period was analysed using descriptive statistics. The findings provide a descriptive representation of (1) the socio-demographic characteristics of the subjects encountered by negotiators, (2) the typical situational characteristics/circumstances in which subjects present and the most frequently encountered subject impact factors and (3) how hostage/crisis incidents are typically resolved. The findings are discussed with relevance to the implications for negotiator practice and policy. An emphasis is placed on identification of recommendations for improving the discipline of hostage and crisis negotiation via the standardisation of deployment recording and targeted/focused training and continuing professional development of negotiators based on the characteristics of deployments observed.

The Emotional Age Estimate—a Supplement to the Indirect Assessment of the Subject of a Crisis Negotiations Team Activation

Three challenges facing police psychologists when performing an indirect assessment of an armed and barricaded subject of a Crisis Negotiation Team activation are (1) the limited amount of information available, (2) the typically very short amount of time in which to perform the assessment, and (3) the need to simultaneously consider the professional ethical issues inherent in the situation. Sharing some of the burden with well-trained crisis negotiators equipped with a non-clinical, uncomplicated system for generating useful hypotheses regarding a subject’s emotional state during the activation and the subject’s emotional capacity when not in crisis can supplement and contribute meaningfully to the assessment. The Emotional Age Estimate responds to the challenges of limited information and time. It aims at contributing a useful supplement to the process of generating an indirect assessment of the subject. The first step is conceptualizing the subject’s current and ongoing behavior as unremarkable for someone with the emotional development of a 2-, 4-, or 6-year-old. The second step is conceptualizing the subject’s behavior on a typical day as demonstrating the capacity of someone with the emotional development of at least a 4-, 15-, or 21-year-old (based on reports by family members, friends, and associates) and other sources of information (criminal history, mental health history, etc.).