title: Disarming people with words: strategies of interactional communication that crisis (hostage) negotiators share with systemic clinicians.
abstract: This qualitative study examined the interactional communication strategies used by law enforcement officers during a hostage-taking incident at a high school. The research involved analysis of the negotiation conversation between police crisis (hostage) negotiators and a hostage taker who entered his former high school to take revenge on a teacher. A condensed version of the talk was micro-analyzed with the actual negotiators from the incident, using ethnographic and Interpersonal Process Recall interviewing methods. Results illustrated that the negotiators used interactional communication strategies valued by systemic family therapists to reach a peaceful conclusion to the incident.
authors.affiliation: Family Therapy Program, Department of Counseling and School Psychology, University of Massachusetts, Boston, MA 02125-3383, USA. laurie.lopez-charles@umb.edu
authors.forename: Laurie L
authors.initials: LL
authors.lastname: Charlés
mesh_terms: D003253:Consultants; D003417:Criminal Psychology / Q000379:methods; D003419:Crisis Intervention / Q000379:methods*; D005555:Forensic Psychiatry / Q000379:methods; D006801:Humans; D035846:Law Enforcement / Q000379:methods*; D017008:Negotiating / Q000379:methods*; D010348:Patient Care Team / Q000458:organization & administration; D010819:Physician's Role; D016495:Police; D014481:United States