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The Process of Hostage Negotiation Essay

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What is hostage negotiation?
Hostage negotiation can be defined as “a negotiation between law enforcement agencies, diplomatic or other government representatives for the release of persons held hostage against their will by criminal, terrorist or other elements” (www.negotiations.com). When hostages are taking, it puts the lives of the hostages, police officers, and people who are around the vicinity of the incident into danger. It can also be harmful in the aspect of being both emotional and psychological. Dwayne Fuselier who is associated with the Special Operations and Research Unit of the FBI Academy states that most articles give three or four types of hostage takers. These types are the crimina, the political activist or …show more content…

In this incident the 42- year old man has already murdered his neighbor, so he is capable of committing a killing again. In addition, the area of the incident consists of a middle school and public library putting those in danger also this scenario can be a high-level crisis class, which must be handled with great care with caution to ensure safety of all involved.
Which category this hostage-taker falls into:
Since there are three to four, different types of hostage takers this particular scenario would fall into the category of a mentally disturbed person who may also have substance abuse since a case of beer was one of his demands. Maher (1977) considered the mentally disturbed hostage taker the hardest to handle and poses as a greater threat. A mentally disturbed person takes hostages for many different reasons. This hostage taker can also fall into the category of the criminal hostage taker. We know that the male committed a crime of murdering his next-door neighbor, majorities of criminal hostage takers are trying to escape a crime they have committed in this case the murder. By taking his wife, son and family friend he is using these people as hostages to ensure his own safety the demands are unusual for a criminal taker they usually demand much more than a case of beer and fast food this would probably fall under the category again of a mentally disturbed person.
Your optimal role in the situation:
A role of the police psychologist is to work as a

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