police negotiations

[amanfang]

I was reading the news...and I often see about "the man surrendered after several hours of police negotiations."  What exactly are they negotiating?  I mean how much room does a criminal really have for negotiating, and if he surrenders, it's not like things will be a lot better because he made some sort of "deal" with the police, right?

[timothy42b]

Usually his instructions are to give the police no more than a 2.3% cost of living increase, and the negotiations drag on because the police are generally insistent on increasing dental and medical benefits.

<humor>

Seriously, you are right.  Negotiation is not a precise term for what goes on.  The actual term a psychologist uses is "crisis intervention."  That term is a little touchy-feelie for the average police force, but it is descriptive of what happens.  To resolve a crisis without shooting requires a high level of skill, because you have to very quickly form a fairly deep relationship with an individual who is at least temporarily quite disturbed and often intoxicated as well.  The pressure on the negotiator is intense.  While there is some "negotiation" occurring, that is just the context under which the real work is going on. 

[thalberg]

Wow.....impressively knowledgeable answer.

[pianistimo]

also, what if they have hostages.  i suppose the terms of negotiations is - i will not blow off their heads if you reduce my charges.  does that ever work?  i mean - when a person is a hard-core criminal - they are going to jail and probably will get finished off in prison.

[timothy42b]

Wow.....impressively knowledgeable answer.

Thanks.

It was an interest of mine when I was in graduate school for Clinical Psychology.  But subsequently I added an engineering degree and changed careers. 

I may change again if I last long enough.  No reason to limit yourself to one job. 

[jlh]

Watch this feature film from 1998:

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0120768/