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The purpose of this paper is to explore the function of crisis incidents in prisons within the UK and USA. The incidents reviewed included riots and hostage incidents, focusing only on information that was available publically. It did not intend to capture official reports not in the public domain.

Publically available information on incidents were systematically reviewed. Functional assessment and grounded theory were employed to examine background factors, triggers and maintaining factors. In total, 25 crisis incidents were analysed (UK =10 and USA =15) from the past 30 years. It was predicted that crisis incidents would be motivated by negative and positive reinforcement, with negative more evidenced than positive. Precipitating factors (i.e. triggers) were predicted to include negative emotions, such as frustration and anger.

Similarities in triggers and background factors were noted between hostage taking and riot incidents. Positive reinforcement was primarily indicated. Riots appeared driven by a need to communicate, to secure power, rights, control and/or freedom, whereas for hostage taking these functions extended to capture the removal of negative emotions, to inflict pain, to punish/gain revenge, to effect a release, to manage boredom and to promote positive emotions.

The study is preliminary and focused on the reporting of incidents in publically available sources; consequently, the data are secondary in nature and further limited by sample size. Nevertheless, it highlights evidence for similarities between types of crisis incidents but also some important potential differences. The need to understand the protective factors preventing incidents and minimising harm during incidents is recommended.

It highlights evidence for similarities between types of critical incidents but also some important potential differences. Understanding differences between incidents is important in the tailoring of specific policies to address these areas. Understanding motivation and reinforcement is valuable in working towards the prevention of critical incidents. Understanding the protective factors preventing incidents and minimising harm during incidents is recommended.

This is an under-researched area. The study contributes to the field not only by focusing on providing a detailed analysis of an under-used source (public reporting) but by also identifying where gaps in research remain. The results demonstrate the value in understanding incidents through their motivation, particularly in distinguishing between negative and positive reinforcement.

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.

The purpose of this paper is to develop a deeper understanding of how leaders manage their own and others’ emotions in professional crisis management organizations during severely demanding episodes. The empirical case is a hostage drama that occurred in a small Swedish town. Although staff at the local prison were situationally prepared and trained in incident exercises, two inmates with knives fled the prison after taking a warden hostage.

A grounded theory approach was used. In all, 14 informants from four Swedish authorities were interviewed on the basis of their involvement in the hostage drama.

According to the analysis, an emergency response leader’s emotion management is framed by an organizationally embedded emotional regime which is summed up in two core themes: focus on the task and do not let emotions interfere; and provide the task force with maximum physical and psychological security. The leader’s emotion management within this framework consists of two interdependent processes, one more organization oriented and one more individual oriented.

Small sample, lack of representativeness, and lack of illumination of possible gender-related aspects.

The suggested model may be valuable in educational settings.

A new integrative, theoretical process model of leadership and emotion management in complex, stressful operations.

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.

This paper is one of the first attempts to explain the local dynamics of the 2010 ethnic riots in Kyrgyzstan. No scholarly work has attempted to systematically analyze the 2010 ethnic violence and its local dynamics on the neighborhood scale. The purpose of this paper is to shed light on this gap by analyzing neighborhoods’ responses to the emerging violence in the city of Osh. In order to do this, the author compares two typical neighborhoods in Osh, one violent and the other non-violent, with different spatial structures and built environments that demonstrate/represent similar dynamics of riots in many other neighborhoods.

The empirical findings of this paper are based on the ethnographic fieldwork the author carried out in 2010 and between 2012 and 2014. During nine months (in total) of the author’s ethnographic fieldwork, the author conducted around 60 semi-structured interviews in Osh city mainly with community leaders. In the author’s interview sampling, the author used two approaches: the snowball method and geographically/territorially representative sampling.

The author argues that among other factors, a particular type of public space provides favorable conditions for riot occurrence or non-occurrence. For example, in Osh, such places as areas around the central bazaar and densely populated multi-story building complexes were especially riot-prone. By contrast, residential areas with individual-unit houses and low residential mobility represented communally private spaces with more easy riot-control. In addition, some residential areas implemented strategies such as physical self-isolation to avoid violence. By restricting freedom of movement and erecting improvised barricades, the residents of such neighborhoods created a temporally new space with its own rules and interethnic cooperation.

This paper suggests new insights in the analysis of riots by connecting theoretical categories and concepts of space provided by scholars of contentious politics and applying them to the case of the 2010 ethnic riots in Osh city. By analyzing riot dynamics on the neighborhood scale, this research contributes to the understanding of the spatial dynamics of ethnic riots.

The aim of this study is to determine the nature and extent of the threat of global maritime piracy. The cost of global piracy has been estimated at USD15-25 billion, reaching an all-time high in 2011, remaining an ongoing threat to world trade and contributing to high commodity costs.

Based on a literature review of formal and informal published sources, this exploratory and diagnostic article attempts to approximately quantify global piracy in terms of pirate activity worldwide and shipper response, and looks at global trends and some tentative economic implications.

The overall findings are inconclusive due to unreliable and piecemeal data, but global piracy clearly impacts goods carried by sea. The piracy problem may be estimated in terms of ships and crew affected, ransoms paid, the impact on specific commodities in terms of cargoes carried and cost implications of pirate-avoiding rerouting.

Pirates are getting rich, but their compatriots are poorer than ever. Countries desperate for international aid are corruptly laundering pirate ransom income and continuing to support pirate warlords. Prices are continuing to rise for consumers in all countries. Solutions to the piracy problem remain elusive, and are considered in a follow-up article, Maritime piracy – the challenge of providing long-term solutions.

Most articles in this field consider specific piracy incidents in particular locations, without an overall analysis of the impact on world trade as a whole. There is a gap in the literature for an up-to-date, analytical study of maritime piracy worldwide.

The advocacy of customer focus in all types of organization, to achieve customer satisfaction and sustain business performance, is widespread. However, practical guidance for managers, in terms of how to build and maintain customer focus, is more difficult to find. Introduces a customer relationship scale to evaluate a company′s customer focus, and then discusses a variety of practical approaches to improving customer focus. Concludes with a number of questions to be confronted in addressing the realities of the customer focus issue.