Crisis intervention skills training for police negotiators in the 21st century

Summary While Crisis Management training and intervention skills are not new areas for police officers or for police crisis negotiators, it is certainly true that such training must be included in the overall preparation for police officers in general and for police crisis negotiators in particular. Not to do so ignores the need for such skills in the day-to-day functions and calls-for-service of these groups. It has been the experience of this author, in talking with police negotiators, that more and more calls for their services are being made, in situations which are non-hostage related, than ever before. These areas continue to include barricaded individuals, suicidal persons, family disputes in which one member of the family is holding other members of the family against their will, and abuse situations including spouse abuse and child abuse. Additional areas include those in which there are juveniles involved as well as within school settings. Some of the latter may involve hostages while others do not. Finally, it is becoming less unusual for negotiators to be summoned only to find that the subject has engaged in acts designed to evoke fatal responses from those officers involved. This phenomenon is commonly referred to as “death by cop.” Further, it is also important that those indirectly involved in these situations receive this type of Crisis Intervention training. These may include first response officers, first response police and security personnel in our public and private schools, security officers in our hospitals and courthouses, and others who, due to their particular jobs, may be involved in these types of incidents.     

Legislative Term Limits and Fiscal Policy Performance

Do term limits impede the ability of legislators to effectively set fiscal policy? To address this question, I examine state bond ratings from 1996 to 2009. Bond ratings serve as a valuable indicator of a state's fiscal performance, gauging the risk and uncertainty that investors face when buying these bonds. In addition, bond ratings are important policy ends in themselves. High bond ratings make it easier for states to borrow and raise revenue, while lowering interest rates. Results from analyses of “Term‐Limitedness” and legislator experience suggest that term limits negatively impact a state's fiscal performance, leading to lower bond ratings.     

Perceptions of coercion in interrogation: comparing expert and lay opinions

ABSTRACT

When confessions are entered into evidence in criminal courts, issues of coercion and voluntariness are important and often contested matters. Occasionally, defense attorneys proffer expert witnesses to testify about the coercive pressures of an interrogation and the risk of a false confession. Such testimony is often ruled inadmissible on the grounds that it does not inform the jury beyond its common knowledge. In our effort to test this judicial assumption about common knowledge, we surveyed jury-eligible laypeople (n?=?67) and social scientists specializing in interrogation and confessions (n?=?54) regarding their opinions about the coerciveness of prohibited interrogation tactics, maximization techniques, minimization techniques, and suspect risk factors and compared their ratings with a set of independent t tests. Laypeople gave lower ratings to the coerciveness of all sets of items representing interrogation techniques, and lower ratings to the vulnerabilities associated with suspect risk factors, as compared to social science experts. The disparities between laypeople’s and experts’ perceptions of coercion in interrogations demonstrate that such issues are not fully within the common knowledge of prospective jurors, and suggest the need to provide jurors with expert witness guidance when tasked with evaluating confession evidence.     

Business Ethics as Corporate Governance

The paper analyses ethical business codes as governance mechanisms, i.e. institutions which facilitate coordination of economic behaviour. Ethical business codes are compared to other social institutions (market solutions, government intervention, the prevailing social ethic), and their efficiency is evaluated in terms of transaction costs. A normative rationale for ethical codes is found when other institutions fail to achieve socially optimal outcomes, in particular when the firm has access to unique information. Some economic incentives are identified which induce firms to commit to socially optimal ethical codes but it is argued that economic forces will not in general be sufficient for optimality.     

The Interpersonal Style and Complementarity Between Crisis Negotiators and Forensic Inpatients

Previous negotiation research has explored the interaction and communication between crisis negotiators and perpetrators. A crisis negotiator attempts to resolve a critical incident through negotiation with an individual, or group of persons in crisis. The purpose of this study was to establish the interpersonal style of crisis negotiators and complementarity of the interpersonal interaction between them and forensic inpatients. Crisis negotiators, clinical workers and students (n = 90) used the Check List of Interpersonal Transactions-Revised (CLOIT-R) to identify interpersonal style, along with eight vignettes detailing interpersonal styles. Crisis negotiators were most likely to have a friendly interpersonal style compared to the other non-trained groups. Complementarity theory was not exclusively supported as submissive individuals did not show optimistic judgments in working with dominant forensic inpatients and vice versa. Exploratory analysis revealed that dominant crisis negotiators were optimistic in working with forensic inpatients with a dominant interpersonal style. This study provides insight into the area of interpersonal complementarity of crisis negotiators and forensic inpatients. Whilst further research is required, a potential new finding was established, with significant ‘similarity’ found when dominant crisis negotiators are asked to work with dominant forensic inpatients.     

The ethical identity of law students

This paper uses measures of values, moral outlook and professional identity to explore the ethical and professional identity of law students. We do so in two jurisdictions, surveying 441 students studying in England and Wales and 569 students studying in the US. The survey covers the first and final years of an undergraduate law degree and the postgraduate vocational stage in England and Wales, as well as students in all years of the JD programme in the US. We explore whether law students towards the end of their legal education have ethical identities predictive of less ethical conduct than those at the beginning of their legal education; whether law students intending careers in business law have values and profiles consistent with less ethical conduct than those intending to work for government or individuals; and what factors might explain these differences in ethical outlook. Our findings suggest that ethical identity is strongly associated with gender and career intentions. They also suggest weaker moral identities for students intending to practise business law. Ultimately, our findings support a conclusion that is more nuanced than the predominant theses about the impact of legal education on student ethicality which tend to suggest legal education diminishes ethicality.     

Crisis (hostage) negotiators weigh in: the skills,behaviors, and qualities that characterize an expert crisis negotiator

This research identified what skills, behaviors, and qualities experienced crisis (hostage) negotiators believe enhance or harm their success during negotiation. 188 negotiators from various countries (primarily United States) voluntarily completed an online survey in which they listed the aforementioned characteristics and reported on various aspects of their own background and behaviors. Open-response questions were coded and quantitative methods revealed what qualities were listed most frequently by negotiators. Active listening, displays of empathy, effective communication, and remaining calm and collected appear at the top of their to-do lists. Conversely, being confrontational, arguing, yelling, and interrupting were reported as behaviors to be avoided. Most negotiators attend trainings multiple times a year and read on the topic of crisis negotiation. About half follow a model during negotiations, typically the FBI’s Behavioral Change Stairway Model. Findings are discussed with relevance to future research directions and improvement of negotiator trainings.     

Engineering human tissue and regulation: confronting biology and law to bridge the gaps

There are a number of difficulties confronting the regulation of human tissue engineered products, from the scientific, ethical and legal perspectives. Many of these issues are international in scope and any responses must consider the global implications of marketing and monitoring these products. The article argues that as tissue engineered products become more available regulatory authorities should not be pressured into adopting possibly inappropriate measures, but must consider all the factors relevant to human health, including the need for innovative regulatory mechanisms as well as innovative tissue products themselves.     

Displaced agendas: current regulatory strategies for germline gene therapy

Recent developments in biotechnology are radically affecting the nature of reproduction and the manner in which we approach disease. In particular, germline gene therapy, or the insertion of genetic material into cells while they are developing and dividing, offers the promise of eradicating genetic defects in humans during embryonic development. In this article, the authors argue that the social and ethical implications of the developments in the field of germline gene therapy have not yet received adequate consideration. Unlike previous technologies which targeted already-developed cells, germline gene therapy can potentially correct and eliminate genetic deficiencies at the developmental stages of a cell. This raises issues of genetic enhancement beyond the therapeutic applications of this technology. However, the authors submit that an established pattern of subordinating social and ethical issues to technical and scientific debate in the regulatory arena is repeating itself in the case of discussions over germline gene therapy. The authors suggest that the American scientific regulatory process fails to fully meet the challenges of this technology, particularly because social and ethical issues are not formally considered in the existing process. They therefore suggest that American regulatory agencies should look to the approach taken by Europe with regard to germline gene therapy as an emerging technology, and that it may be necessary to incorporate effective public debate over social and ethical concerns into a regulatory process which is primarily concerned only with the efficacy of new technologies.     

‘An error is feedback’: the experience of communication error management in crisis negotiations

A range of studies have examined what should be said and done in crisis negotiations. Yet, no study to date has considered what happens when an error is made, how to respond to an error, and what the consequences of errors and responses might be on the negotiation process itself. To develop our understanding of errors, we conducted 11 semi-structured interviews with police crisis negotiators in the Netherlands. Negotiators reported making errors of three types: factual, judgment, or contextual. They also reported making use of four types of response strategy: accept, apologize, attribute, and contradict. Critically, the negotiators did not perceive errors as solely detrimental, but as an opportunity for feedback. They advocated for an error management approach, which focused on what could be learned from another person’s errors when looking back at them. Suggestions for improvement of the communication error management experience in crisis negotiations are discussed.     

Police Support for Community Problem-Solving and Broken Windows Policing

This paper explores overall police officer acceptance of tactics and tenets of broken windows and community problem-solving policing. It assesses differential support for each by police officer characteristics (i.e., race/ethnicity, gender, rank, education level, years of service, and assignment). This study presents the findings of a survey of 227 sworn police personnel from two urban police departments. Univariate analyses reveal the levels of support that police have for certain police tactics and tenets of broken windows and community problem-solving policing. Regression analyses examine the relationship between key officer characteristics and support for these tactics and tenets as measured by respondents’ agreement with various items and indices. Findings include support for community problem-solving (and also a reliance on traditional policing methods); a lag in investigators’ acceptance of community problem-solving; and differences by officer race/ethnicity, education, rank, and assignment in indices related to broken windows and rapid response policing. The differential acceptance of broken windows and rapid response tactics by race/ethnicity suggests interesting implications for future studies of race/ethnicity and broken windows policing. The greater acceptance of certain tactics by patrol officers supports current moves toward innovating in police investigations’ bureaus.     

Working to Avoid Collateral Emotional Harm to Clients: Cases and Recommendations for the Personal Injury Attorney

Attorneys working in the area of personal injury face complex cases in addition to many potential ethical and practice hazards. They are trained, educated, and have experience in handling and discharging their responsibilities in such cases to the best advantage of their clients, whether plaintiff or defense, while maintaining a professional integrity and appropriate ethical stance. Ideally, personal injury attorneys will practice from a position of virtue, serving their clients in their efforts to recover and regain their quality of life. Nevertheless, factors such as financial and work pressures can intervene, leading to inappropriate conduct that may harm their clients and risk professional alienation and malpractice. In the present article, seven case examples are provided that illustrate how personal injury attorneys working for plaintiffs can act in unethical and harmful ways, ultimately endangering their practice. The article is oriented to attorneys at all phases of their careers and includes recommendations for avoiding the types of harm and unethical practice that have been described. Also, the article presents strategies that psychologists treating these patients can take to remedy further emotional damage to patients.     

Professional Minimalism? The Ethical Consciousness of Commercial Lawyers

This article investigates empirically, through semi‐structured interviews, what shapes the professional ethical consciousness of commercial lawyers. It considers in‐house and private practice lawyers side by side, interrogating the view that in‐house ethics are different and inferior to private practice to suggest as much similarity as difference. In both constituencies, and in very similar ways, professional ethical concepts are challenged by the pragmatic logics of business. We examine how their ethical logics are shaped by these pragmatic logics, suggesting how both groups of practitioners could sometimes be vulnerable to breaching the boundary between tenable zeal for the client and unethical or unlawful conduct. Although they conceive of themselves as ethical, the extent to which practitioners are well equipped, inclined and positively encouraged to work ethically within their own rules is open to question. As a result, we argue professional ethics exert minimal, superficial influence over a more self‐interested, commercially‐driven pragmatism.     

An exploration of attitudes and support needs of police officer negotiators involved in suicide negotiation

This study explored the attitudes and support needs of police officer negotiators involved in suicide negotiation. A qualitative approach was adopted, applying principles of grounded theory research. Purposive sampling was used and 16 semi-structured interviews conducted. Strategies and processes taught during training for the role constituted an important support mechanism. The lack of formal processes to support participants’ well-being was reported although effective peer support network amongst negotiators existed. Mental health awareness and suicide intervention training should be considered key for police officers, who are first responders. Robust procedures are needed to support the emotional well-being of police negotiators.     

Police interviewing techniques at two south london police stations

Abstract

This paper analyses the techniques used by police officers at two South London Police Stations: Orpington and Peckham. Audio tapes of 161 police interviews were analysed with regard to their duration, type of techniques employed, suspects' reactions, and the number of confessions obtained. The findings reveal that the great majority of the interviews are short, non-confrontational, and that exchanges are conducted with polite and compliant suspects. The Orpington suspects were significantly more ‘co-operative’ than their Peckham counterparts which may reflect quite different social and demographic conditions. In only a fifth of the cases did the police employ any challenging tactics to question the suspect's version of events. Overall, there were fewer coercive or manipulative tactics employed compared with earlier studies although the number of confessions or admissions obtained has remained relatively constant. Recommendations are made for police interview training to reflect these findings.     

The dynamic prediction of antisocial behavior among forensic psychiatric patients: a prospective field study

Staff ratings of 595 supervised forensic psychiatric patients on the Proximal Risk Factor Scale and the Problem Identification Checklist were completed monthly for an average of 33 months. During the follow-up, there were 265 incidents, 86 of which were violent. The average ratings, excluding those from the index month, differentiated patients who had incidents from those who did not. As well, the average ratings distinguished between individuals with and without incidents of a violent or sexual nature. There were significant increases in staff ratings in the months preceding the index incident month. Within-patient analyses showed that changes in dynamic risk scales comprising the best items for predicting incidents of any kind and violent or sexual incidents were strongly related to their respective outcomes and were significantly related to outcome in an independent sample. Changes in monthly staff ratings predict the imminent occurrence of antisocial and violent behaviors.     

How Do Police Respond to Stalking? An Examination of the Risk Management Strategies and Tactics Used in a Specialized Anti-Stalking Law Enforcement Unit

How do police respond to and manage complaints of stalking? To answer this question, we conducted a 3-phase study. First, we reviewed the literature to identify risk management tactics used to combat stalking. Second, we asked a group of police officers to review those tactics for completeness and group them into categories reflecting more general risk management strategies. The result was 22 categories of strategies. Finally, we used qualitative methods to evaluate the files of 32 cases referred to the specialized anti-stalking unit of a metropolitan police department. We coded specific risk management tactics and strategies used by police. Results indicated that a median number of 19 specific tactics from 7 general strategies were used to manage risk. Also, the implementation of strategies and tactics reflected specific characteristics of the cases (e.g., perpetrator risk factors, victim vulnerability factors), suggesting that the risk management decisions made by police were indeed strategic in nature. Qualitative analyses indicated that some of the strategies and tactics were more effective than others. We discuss how these findings can be used to understand and use stalking risk management more generally, as well as improve research on the efficacy of risk assessment and management for stalking.     

Comparing ethics education in medicine and law: combining the best of both worlds

This article compares various models of ethics education and how these models are employed by both medical schools and law schools. The authors suggest ways in which each profession can enhance their ethical teaching and argue that ethics education in both medicine and law should combine the best elements of each education model, thereby producing graduates who are more knowledgeable and appreciative of ethical issues in practice.     

Judicial Exceptions to the Free Provision of Services

Abstract: Recent case-law of the Court of Justice on general interest exceptions to the free provision of services has indicated a flexible approach to general interest exceptions involving moral or ethical issues. In contrast, where the general interest exception is relied on in a case which demonstrates predominantly economic issues, it is subject to strict scrutiny, in particular, with reference to the principle of proportionality. The article analyses the Court's case-law and tries to deduce the criteria which now govern the Court's position. It also highlights difficulties which this two-tier approach may excite. The position of the Court of Justice reflects the lack of homogeneous European ethical and moral standards, but it also underlines the predominantly economic character of European integration to date. It is submitted, nevertheless, that divorcing the economic criteria for integration from general ethical considerations will prove an extremely difficult, if not fruitless, task.