U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government, Department of Justice.

NCJRS Virtual Library

The Virtual Library houses over 235,000 criminal justice resources, including all known OJP works.
Click here to search the NCJRS Virtual Library

Interactions of Law Enforcement and Behavioral Science Personnel (From Victims of Terrorism, P 165-171, 1982, Frank M Ochberg and David A Soskis, eds. - See NCJ-85900)

NCJ Number
85905
Author(s)
C V Hassel
Date Published
1982
Length
7 pages
Annotation
The article describes ways in which collaboration between law enforcement and behavioral science personnel to deal with police officer stress has led to the readiness and ability to work together on the problem of hostage negotiations.
Abstract
While some law enforcement officers have always been suspicious of behavioral scientists, the hostile feelings increased during the 1960's and 1970's, when governmental studies and academic treatises were highly critical of police action and the police community. However, the growing awareness of the adverse effects of police stress and of the benefits of the use of psychologists and psychiatrists to help police officers deal with it has helped dispel much of this suspicion. Following the televising of the Munich Olympics tragedy, when several Israeli athletes were abducted and killed, police began to think seriously of the possibility that similar incidents could occur in the United States. The New York City Police Department used one of their policemen, who had a doctorate in psychology, to set up a hostage negotiation program for the department. As a result, hundreds of hostage situations have been successfully negotiated without the loss of life. Research and collaboration between the fields of law enforcement and behavioral science is now well-established. Police departments are using the same psychological theory when negotiating with trapped criminals or with mentally ill persons as when dealing with terrorists. It is also known that a hostage siege has stages which coincide with the normal physical reaction to situations eliciting stress or panic. Behaviorists have been used in some countries as negotiators in terrorist hostage situations. The FBI has a research unit which is gathering information about both behavioral and tactical methodology, based on observations of terrorist and hostage incidents internationally.