Dynamic Processes of Crisis Negotiation

This edited collection offers a comprehensive examination of theory, research, and practice in crisis (hostage) negotiation from the perspectives of communication, law enforcement, psychology, sociology, and criminology. The volume identifies promising conceptual frameworks for the development of research on crisis negotiation. This book is also useful to crisis negotiation trainers and leaders in law enforcement who are searching for insight beyond anecdotal stories and who recognize the need for more rigorous application of behavioral science to the practice of crisis negotiation.

RANDALL G. ROGAN is Associate Professor in the Department of Communication at Wake Forest University. He has researched and written numerous papers and articles on the communicative dynamics of conflict interaction, focusing specifically on linguistic markers of emotion, face behaviors, and the relational dynamics of hostage negotiation. Along with Mitchell R. Hammer, he studies threatening communication and investigates the cultural factors that impact conflict interaction in general, and hostage negotiation specifically. MITCHELL R. HAMMER is Associate Professor in the School of International Service at The American University in Washington, D.C., where he specializes in intercultural communication and conflict negotiation. He has published widely, with over 50 articles, contributing to several anthologies as well as numerous scholarly and professional journals. Dr. Hammer has been a recent advisor on cross-cultural communication and negotiation to the Behavior and Performance Laboratory of the NASA Johnson Space Center for the Space Station Freedom Program. He is also an advisor to the National Institute of Health in conflict management and to the Federal Bureau of Investigation and other law enforcement agencies in the area of crisis communication and threat assessment. CLINTON R. VAN ZANDT, a 25-year veteran of the FBI, was the FBI's former Chief Hostage Negotiator and a member of the Bureau's famed Behavioral Science Unit until his retirement in 1995. He is currently president of Van Zandt & Associates, Inc., a crisis management consulting firm specializing in the assessment of communicated threats, psychological profiling, violence in the workplace issues, stalking matters, psycholinguistic analysis, and other types of behaviorally oriented investigative assistance for both corporate security and law enforcement. He has authored numerous articles on hostage negotiation, kidnapping, and crisis management. Rogan, Hammer, and Van Zandt are collectively authoring Crisis Negotiations: Case Studies of Hostage Incidents, forthcoming from Praeger.