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Hostage and crisis negotiators serve a vital function within society by resolving hostage/crisis incidents. This role, performed by specially trained police “volunteers”, helps to prevent numerous fatalities and forms an important part of the modern policing repertoire. There is limited research that identifies the experiences of police officers that dedicate their lives to saving others by volunteering in this capacity. This paper aims to provide an insight into this fundamental police role using negotiator’s personal narratives.

This study consisted of an exploratory qualitative grounded theoretical analysis of semi-structured interviews conducted with 15 negotiators from nine English police forces.

The analysis revealed 3 primary, 7 secondary and 23 tertiary categories that form a conceptual model of the negotiator experience. The three primary categories consisted of “negotiator positives”, “negotiator negatives” and “negotiator ambivalences”, which provide an insight into the experiences and identities of negotiators in England.

The findings identify several positive factors that could be used to market the role more effectively within police forces and enhance future recruitment processes. Equally, the findings highlight several operational and organisational issues that have a negative impact on the negotiator experience. The findings are, therefore, discussed in light of the practical implications for negotiator training/continuing professional development, policy and practice.

This paper depicts the findings from one of the first qualitative analyses of negotiator experiences and provides a unique insight into the negotiator role from an Anglo-centric perspective.

The purpose of this paper is to examine SWAT operator deployment experience, personality, cognitive-emotion regulation, and decision making to see if there were correlations with successful SWAT callout resolution. These findings would then be compared with the results of a national survey of hostage (crisis) negotiators in the hopes of finding information that might be helpful with team dynamics, officer selection for these teams, and with operational dynamics and successful resolution of SWAT callouts.

Active SWAT officers (n=277) from various law enforcement entities in 21 states participated in this survey research. They completed a demographic questionnaire, questions about their callout experiences and experiences on their SWAT team, the Big 5 Personality Inventory, the Cognitive-Emotion Regulation Questionnaire, and the General Decision-Making Style questionnaire. These results were then compared with the same results obtained from a national survey of hostage (crisis) negotiators (n=514) and patrol officers (n=72).

Common personality and decision-making styles emerged from the SWAT survey, and correlations between these variables and the successful resolution of SWAT callouts are discussed. These results were then compared with negotiators and patrol officers via an ANOVA. Distinct differences between these groups emerged.

Recruiting research participants from law enforcement, much less from a closed group such as SWAT operators, is difficult. The response rate for this study was low, and was due in part to the agency themselves declining to participate. The current study relied on honest self-report, which is always a limitation of this type of survey research. Another limitation was that lack of statistically significant findings for the multivariate and the binomial logistic regression analysis. No extrapolation of the relationship between personality, cognitive-emotion regulation, and decision-making styles and the outcome and resolution of callouts is possible based on these findings.

This research could have direct effect on the training and selection of SWAT team officers and hostage negotiators. There is also information provided that may impact the operation and coordination of these groups as they work together during callouts in the community.

The current social climate in the USA seems to be calling for police departments to do everything possible to resolve high risk and dangerous situations with as much care and as little force as possible. In order to achieve successful and peaceful resolution of these SWAT callout situations, departments must deploy officers with the necessary skills, personality, and decision-making abilities.

There is very little general research on SWAT teams, and almost nothing on SWAT operator experience, personality, or decision making. These findings have value and application in SWAT operator selection and training, along with SWAT and negotiator dynamics and decision making when trying to successfully and peacefully resolve a SWAT callout operation.

Suicide by cop (SbC) is a growing problem and presents special challenges to crisis (hostage) negotiation teams. The purpose of this paper is to examine current definitions of SbC, early warning signs of SbC, successful and unsuccessful resolution of cases, and strategies that have proven most effective to resolve these incidents. Recommendations regarding appropriate training and coping strategies in dealing with the post-shooting emotional sequelae of SbC are presented.

With a dearth of empirical knowledge regarding how to properly respond to SbC crisis incidents, an extensive literature review was conducted to ascertain extant strategies to de-escalate and reduce the lethality of these events.

Results indicated that SbC crisis incidents are more likely to be resolved if officers provide reassurance for the way that subject's feel, comply with reasonable requests, and offer alternative or realistic options. Establishing rapport by spending time with the subject and utilizing active listening skills can decrease the likelihood of another episode in the future.

These findings have implications for the efficient training of law enforcement officers in general, and crisis negotiators, in particular, in how to appropriately deal with SbC events. The authors also highlight specific errors in negotiation and how to observe early warning signs in the SbC subject to inform prevention and intervention strategies.

The paper adds to the limited literature on crisis negotiation techniques for resolving SbC incidents.

The purpose of this paper is to review several major components of hostage negotiation including: the different types of hostage situations; the prediction of the behavioral patterns of the hostage taker; the collection and the use of police intelligence in hostage incidents; and the application of forensic psychology during the hostage negotiations process.

Emphasis on the social psychological aspects of creating attitude change and gaining compliance with the hostage taker are introduced to assist in developing an effective crisis communication approach during the hostage negotiations process.

The paper also discusses trends in hostage negotiation strategies within incidents of domestic violence, suicide by cop, school shootings, and suicide/homicide bombings.

Limitations and advancements in the field of hostage negotiations are also discussed as well as suggestions for the use of tactical entry to resolve unsuccessful hostage negotiations.

Explores the current trend of “suicide by cop,” but also introduces the concept of homicide by cop in relation to police shootings.

The use of criminal psychology in developing hostage negotiation strategies to engage hostage takers with personality disorders, PTSD, paranoid schizophrenia, and suicidal depression is also discussed.

This paper aims to suggest a dynamic model incorporating the important dimensions that exist in negotiation processes.

To produce a general and conceptual theory of negotiation, the grounded theory methodology is deployed.

The core process in this model is dubbed “goal-oriented balancing” and describes how he negotiator is continuously balancing opposing, and seemingly contrasting, forces in a situation specific and dynamic manner to reach agreements. Based on these findings, this study also suggests a concept to describe negotiations that is focused on collaboration and that is not an oxymoron as is the concept of “win–win”.

This conceptual model can be used by managers and practitioners to navigate in a negotiation process.

This is the first grounded theory study in negotiation research and attempt to describe negotiation processes as dynamic events in which different dimensions are managed simultaneously.

The purpose of this study is to analyze whether negotiators stick to one single negotiation style or whether their styles vary during the negotiation process. The paper seeks to identify different combinations of phase-specific negotiation styles and investigates the relationship between these combinations and negotiation performance and satisfaction.

The study is based on a large online negotiation simulation that allows a phase-specific analysis of negotiation styles via an elaborate coding scheme.

The findings reveal that negotiators generally do not limit themselves to a single negotiation style. Instead, they vary their style in the course of different negotiation phases. The authors distinguish between five distinct phase-specific negotiation style patterns that differ with regard to their impact on negotiation performance but not negotiation satisfaction.

The study demonstrates that a phase-specific analysis of negotiation styles allows deeper insights into a negotiator’s style behavior. For future studies, the authors recommend taking a phase-specific view when analyzing negotiation styles.

Negotiation practitioners get to know different phase-specific negotiation style patterns and get insights into which pattern is the most promising for negotiation performance. As a result, they can acquire this phase-specific negotiation style pattern to enhance their performance.

The paper contributes to existing negotiation style literature, because it is the first to analyze negotiation styles from a phase-specific point of view.

Emotional intelligence (EI) reflects an ability to acknowledge one's own emotional state and keep one's emotions in balance while recognizing emotions in others, managing interactions and relationships with them and resolving conflict. Considering that police work largely involves interactions with others, the purpose of this paper is to offer a state-of-the-art review of the research on EI in policing.

Using several online databases, a literature search was performed to collect all peer reviewed studies on EI in policing from around the globe. The authors review the nature of this research and its major findings. They also summarize how EI was conceptualized and measured across studies.

The authors' search generated a list of 20 studies carried out in 9 countries. Almost all used survey methods and most adopted an ability-based model of EI. The most common area of focus was on correlates of EI in police officers (N = 12), followed by descriptive studies of EI in police officers (N = 5), and finally assessments of the relevance of EI for police training (N = 3).

Policing research has not paid enough attention to EI. To the authors' knowledge, this is the first effort to assess the state of this literature. With law enforcement agencies looking for ways to improve citizen trust and legitimacy worldwide, the preliminary evidence suggests EI warrants considerably more empirical and practical consideration.

Collaborative inter-agency working is of paramount importance for the public protection agenda worldwide. The purpose of this paper is to disseminate the findings from a research study on the inter-agency working within adult support and protection (ASP) roles in the police, health and social care.

This realistic evaluation study with two inter-related phases was funded by the Scottish Institute for Policing Research. This paper reports on Phase 1 which identified existing gaps in the implementation of effective inter-agency practice by reviewing the “state of play” in inter-agency collaboration between the police and health and social care professionals. In total, 13 focus groups comprising representatives from Police Scotland (n=52), Social Care (n=31) and Health (n=18), engaged in single profession and mixed profession groups addressing issues including referral and information exchange.

On analysing context-mechanism-outcome (CMO), gaps in joint working were identified and attributed to the professionals’ own understanding of inter-agency working and the expectations of partner agencies. It recommended the need for further research and inter-agency training on public protection.

This unique Scottish study successfully identified the inter-agency practices of health, social services and police. By means of a modified realistic evaluation approach, it provides an in-depth understanding of the challenges that professionals face on a day-to-day basis when safeguarding adults and informed strategic recommendations to overcome the barriers to good practices in organisational working. The methods used to determine CMO could benefit other researchers to develop studies exploring the complexities of multi-causal effects of cross-boundary working. The use of the same case study in each focus group helped to neutralise bias. However, the voluntary nature of participation could have resulted in biased perceptions. The limited numbers of health professionals may have resulted in less representation of health sector views.

This paper reports on a Scottish study that focused on the coordinated and integrated practices amongst the police, health and social services’ professionals who support and protect adult members of society at risk of harm and has implications for their practice.

Whilst the focus of this study has been on ASP, the conclusions and recommendations are transferable to public protection issues in many other contexts.

Studies on the joint-working practices amongst police and health and social services’ professionals who support and protect adult members of society at risk of harm are uncommon. This study investigated professionals’ perceptions of gaps and concerns pertaining to integrated working by means of a realistic evaluation approach. It recommended the need for further research and inter-agency training on public protection.

The purpose of this paper is to critically evaluate the learning effectiveness and engagement of blended learning tools in a management course of negotiation skills. The study addresses the dilemma brought to light through literature regarding the learning effectiveness of roleplays as a teaching tool in negotiation training. The study compares the impact of traditional roleplays vis-à-vis roleplays fused with blended tools on learner's performance. The endeavour is to investigate the learning effectiveness of traditional tools (roleplay simulation and lecture) vs blended learning tools (flipped classroom, massive open online courses, independent study fused with roleplay simulation).

The current study delves into a negotiation course to conduct experimental research comparing traditional and blended learning tools. The total number of students who participated in this study were 80.

The findings indicate the improved learning effectiveness of blended learning tools vis-à-vis traditional tools. Generation Z students were more engaged with the use of blended learning tools and enjoyed the experience. The study recommends blended learning tools for educators aiming to transition from traditional learning to interactive learning to create experiential classrooms.

Limited sample size and single group experimentation are some limitations of the study. Some latent flaws in the implementation of roleplay simulations in negotiation training were revealed during the study. The study focuses solely on a negotiations course taught to management students.

The study would help academic institutes to comply with the pressing need to impart experiential learning in the classroom. The research would act as a bridge between the industry expectations and academia deliverables.

The study would help academic institutes to comply with the pressing need to impart experiential learning through blended learning in the classroom. The research would act as a bridge between the industry expectations and academia deliverables.

The study addresses the dilemma in the literature, which, on the one hand, upholds the learning effectiveness of roleplays as a teaching tool, and on the other hand, suggests that roleplays have lost their applicability due to advancement in students' exposure to technology. The study in itself is unique, as it addresses the need for higher student engagement in the classroom.