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This paper tests the fit of three models of integrative and distributive bargaining using eight hostage negotiation transcripts. Putnam (1990) argues that integrative and distributive bargaining processes are best understood through the interdependence model that emphasizes the dynamic nature in which bargainers make transitions between integrative and distributive positions. The separate and the stage models predict more stable patterns of distributive and integrative behavior. To determine the goodness of fit for these three models, this paper compares integrative and distributive strategy use among actual and simulated hostage negotiations. These hostage negotiations, obtained from the FBI and a Midwest state police organization, were transcribed and coded using a scheme designed to tap cooperative and competitive strategy use of both hostage takers and police negotiators. The data reveal that the interdependence model best fits the simulated cases. This fit is evidenced by the major shifts between integrative and distributive orientations displayed by hostage takers and police negotiators. The separate models and the stage appear to fit several features of the authentic hostage negotiation cases. The study concludes that the extent to which each model emerges depends largely on which contextual parameters dominate the interaction.

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 develops an empirical means of tracking involvement in a relational double‐bind in hostage negotiations as a means of monitoring the extent to which the hostage takers developed more cooperative or competitive relational parameters with police negotiators. Verbal immediacy was used to track the hostage takers double bind problems across nine different hostage negotiations. The results indicated that the purpose for taking hostages greatly influenced the kinds of paradoxes displayed by the hostage takers. Mentally ill hostage takers became cooperative early in the negotiation, but then turned more competitive as the negotiation unfolded. Hostage takers caught in the act of committing a crime became competitive early and then became more cooperative as time elapsed The hostage takers involved in domestic violence remained competitive throughout the interaction.

This paper examines whether patterns in communication behavior over time can predict the outcome of crisis negotiations. A sample of 189 interaction episodes was transcribed from 9 resolved negotiations and coded according to differences in the degree and type of behavior. Partial order scalogram analysis (POSAC) was used to produce a graphical representation of the similarities and differences among episodes while simultaneously uncovering the role of each behavior in shaping the negotiation process. Results showed that episodes could be represented along a partially ordered scale of competitiveness, which was structured by the occurrence of two types of behavior: Distributive‐Expressive and Integrative‐Instrumental. The likelihood of negotiation success reduced with movement up the competitive scale, and negotiations involving episodes that passed a threshold of extreme competition on the scale inevitably ended unsuccessfully regardless of future developments. As negotiations developed over time, behavior alternated between periods of increasing cooperation and periods of increasing competition, with unsuccessful negotiations associated with a concluding trend of increasing competitive behavior.

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.

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.

I recently agreed to participate in a study in which the researcher was interested in learning how academic scholars make the personal choice to pursue their specific field of inquiry. She wanted me to explain my personal fascination with conflict, and to begin by reflecting on my adolescence as a formative driver for my interests. I remarked that the significant developmental markers in my life centered on major conflict episodes that, in many ways, also have served to define a generation. My junior high school years were defined by the JFK assignation, while my high school years witnessed the MLK and RFK assignations and the attending civil unrest in Cleveland, Detroit, and Chicago. In college, I remember May 4, 1970 as if it were yesterday because I attended Bowling Green State University, a sister school of Kent State, and activists staged a very intense demonstration on campus just hours after the Kent State events. Finally, graduate school was marked by the Yom Kippur War and the fall of Saigon.

The goal of this essay is to examine the conflict resolution activities during political diplomacy as a dynamic and interactive process. In an application of Relational Order Theory (Donohue, 1998), this essay employs a model highlighting the instrumental, relational, and identity‐based issues involved in conflict resolution. To illustrate the utility of this model of Relational Process Management, this essay examines the process of diplomacy leading to the Dayton Accords in the areas of the Former Yugoslavia. For years the international community's efforts at intervention in this conflict were quite meager, as ceasefires and peace plans were brokered and dissolved with some regularity. Ultimately, a final coordinated effort by multiple external parties finally brought the combatants to the table in Dayton, Ohio to negotiate a formal agreement. The complex process by which the parties came to the negotiating table provides a rich case study by which to explore the interactive processes of diplomacy. An examination of the events in this case through the lens of instrumental, relational, and identity‐bound issues culminates with lessons learned from this interactionally‐based analysis of international conflict.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the decision‐making implications of “regrets of the heart” versus “regrets of the head” in economic decision making.

The phenomenon in three empirical studies is examined. Study 1 is a protocol analysis of people's “regrets of the heart” and “regrets of the head”. Study 2 uses the same recall prompt and examined decision makers' choices in an ultimatum bargaining game. Study 3 tests regrets of heart versus the head in an interactive face to face negotiation setting.

Overall, it is found that people who were prompted to recall a time in which they regretted “not following their heart” were more likely to recall situations in which they experienced a loss or lost opportunity compared to people who recalled a time when they regretted “not following their head”. Recalling a regret of the heart prompts decision makers and negotiators to put a greater value on maintaining relationships and avoid loss in an interpersonal exchange situation.

These findings contribute to the literature on how emotions affect economic decision making and provide a more nuanced examination of regret.

Focusing on “regrets of the head” may lead to greater economic gains in economic decisions.

This article examines a different type of regret and demonstrates how this type of regret impacts economic decision‐making behavior.