3rd Edition

Psychological Aspects of Crisis Negotiation

By Thomas Strentz

Book Description
Psychological Aspects of Crisis Negotiation, Third Edition, explores the methods and
strategies for confronting the nine types of subjects typically encountered in
hostage/suicide sieges by correctional staff and law enforcement crisis negotiators.
Strentz, an experienced negotiator who designed and directed the FBI’s hostage
negotiator program, lays out the critical elements that are required for a successful
encounter with a hostage taker or other malfeasant.

This book highlights psychological dynamics of negotiations as they apply to the

negotiator, the hostage, and the subject. It discusses the predictors of surrender
versus the need for a tactical intervention and examines the phases of a hostage
crisis and the changing focus as the crisis develops. Referencing historical events
such as the Bay of Pigs invasion and the Challenger and Columbia incidents, this
text demonstrates how faulty group decision making can spell tragedy.

Enhanced with case studies to put the material into context, this third edition also
includes new chapters on the SWAT team/crisis negotiator interface and on the
genesis of the increased incidence of mentally ill hostage takers. Based on decades
of experience in the fi eld and practical advice from a national expert, this volume
arms negotiators with the knowledge and tools they need to defuse crises and
increase the odds that hostages will survive.

Table of Contents
Acknowledgments

Introduction

Part I Basic concepts

1. In the Beginning

2. The American Psychiatric Association (APA)

3. Patients to Prisoners

4. Characteristics of Effective Hostage/Crisis Negotiators

5. Cross-Trained versus Cross-Qualified

6. First Responder Guidelines

7. Non-Law Enforcement/Correctional Crisis Negotiators

8. The Crisis Negotiation Team

9. Stress and the Hostage/Crisis Negotiator

10. SWAT/Negotiator Interface

Part II Dealing with the Other Victim

11. Negotiating with Normal People

12. Negotiating with the Adolescent in Crisis

13 Negotiating with the Dependent/Inadequate Person

14. Negotiating with the Antisocial Personality Disorder (It's All about Me!)

15. Negotiating with the Paranoid Schizophrenic

16. Negotiating with the Bipolar Hostage Taker (I'm Focused and Flying High)

17. Negotiating with the Suicidal Hostage Taker

18. Negotiating with the Police Assisted Suicidal Person

19. Crisis Negotiations in the Correctional Setting

20. Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and Traumatic Brain Syndrome (TBS)

21. Negotiating with the Extremist

Part III Crisis Resolution Indicators

22. Indicators of Subject Surrender

23. Indicators of Subject Violence

Part IV Group Dynamics

24. Group Think

25. Creative Criteria for Constructive Deviation from Crisis Negotiation Guidelines

Part V Hostage Issues

26. Phases of the Crisis

27. The Stockholm Syndrome

28. What Do You Say to a Hostage?

29. A Hostage Psychological Survival Guide