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  3. Hostage Negotiation A hostage situation is a law-enforcement worst-case scenario, because it places innocent civilians direc

Hostage Negotiation A hostage situation is a law-enforcement worst-case scenario, because it places innocent civilians direc

admin2013-06-02  40
问题                                     Hostage Negotiation
    A hostage situation is a law-enforcement worst-case scenario, because it places innocent civilians directly in harm’s way. Armed intervention becomes very risky, since the hostages themselves can be harmed either by stray bullets or by the hostage-takers. That makes the negotiation the most important aspect of any hostage crisis. A skilled negotiator must find out what the hostage-taker wants, who he or she’ is and what it will take to achieve a peaceful outcome, all while ensuring the safety of the hostages and other bystanders.
    Ideally, a hostage situation ends with everyone walking away. In this article, we’ll find out what happens on the scene of a hostage negotiation,how a negotiator gets the job done. We will also take a look at the psychology of hostage-takers.
The Hostage Situation
    Although hostage situations can vary greatly based on the motivations of the hostage-taker and the exact circumstances surrounding the incident, there are some basic facts that apply to all hostage situations.
     The hostage-taker wants to obtain something. This can be as simple as money, personal safety or sale passage to another country, or it can involve complicated political goals.
    The target of the hostage-taker is not the hostage; it is some third party (a person, a company or a government) that can provide whatever it is the hostage-taker’ wants.
    The hostages are bargaining chips. They may have symbolic value (as at the 1972 Munich Olympics, in which the target was the Israeli government and the hostages were Israeli athletes), but the hostages themselves could be anyone.
    Hostage situations move through several distinct phases.
    Initial Phase—This phase is violent and brief and lasts as long as it takes for the hostage-takers to make their assault and subdue(慑服) the hostages. The end of this phase is often marked by the presentation of the hostage takers’ demands.
    Negotiation Phase—At this point, law-enforcement officials are on the scene, and the demands have probably been received. This phase can last hours, days or months and could also be referred to as "the standoff(均衡) phase. "Physically, nothing about the situation changes greatly. The hostages and the hostage-takers stay in the same place. However, a lot is happening during this phase in terms of the relationships developing between everyone involved. The negotiator’s job boils down to manipulating those relationships in a way that results in a peaceful ending.
    Termination Phase—This is the brief, sometimes violent final phase. This phase has one of throe results:  The hostage-takers surrender peacefully and are arrested. Police assault the hostage-takers and kill or arrest them.  The hostage-takers’ demands are granted, and they escape.
    The fate of the hostages does not necessarily depend on what happens during the termination phase. Even if the hostage-takers give up, they may have killed the hostages during the negotiations. Often, hostages are killed either accidentally by police or intentionally by their captors during an assault. There have even been cases in which the hostage-takers were granted their demands, but they killed a hostage anyway.
    There is also a post-incident stage in which the effects of the incident play themselves out. These effects can include changes in the status of the groups responsible, shifts in the relationships between world governments or in creases in security.
Hostage-takers
    One of the first things a negotiator does when he or she arrives on the scene of a hostage crisis is to find out everything about the hostage-taker. The most basic question is: Why did this person take a hostage? There are a few common reasons.
    The hostage-taker might be emotionally or mentally disturbed. His or her specific reason for taking a hostage may be illogical. He or she may be suicidal. This is the only type of hostage situation in which the hostage is often related to the hostage-taker. This type of hostage situation is unplanned.
    According to Lt. Gary Schmidt of the Cheektowaga Police Department in Cheektowaga, NY, this is the type of hostage situation the average police officer faces most often. "Most of the time, it’s a single person involved in a domestic dispute, barricaded in a home. The hostages are family members in the same building."
    Some criminals use innocent bystanders as human shields to protect themselves from the police. In most cases, this happens when a criminal is caught, panics and grabs a hostage to help ’himself escape. In rare eases, hostages are part of a plan used by professional criminals to aid in their escape, but usually, it is unplanned.
    The most famous hostage situations in history have been the result of carefully planned attacks by terrorists and radical political groups. The hostage-takers intend from the beginning to trade the lives of the hostages for whatever specific goals they want to achieve. These can range from changes in one or more countries’ political policies, the re lease of political prisoners or the repeal of specific laws. Terrorist groups may also have goals that they will achieve regardless of the outcome: destabilizing the target of their attack and attracting attention to their cause.
    Kidnapping is a form of hostage crisis, but it doesn’t resemble a typical hostage situation in which the hostage-takers are barricaded in a known area. Kidnappers keep their hostage in a secret location, and communication is often one-way—the kidnappers tell the authorities what to do. As a result, there isn’t much negotiating.
    Regardless of the hostage-taker’s motivation, the basic element of negotiating remains the same. "You work to build a rapport(亲善) and encourage them to bring about a peaceful conclusion. The same techniques are used whenever someone is in crisis," said Lt. Schmidt.
Negotiator Objectives and Tactics
    There are four primary objectives of a negotiator.
    Prolong the situation. The longer a hostage situation lasts, the more likely that it will end peacefully. Tactics in elude stalling while an official with more authority is consulted, getting deadlines pushed back, focusing the hostage takers’ attention on details such as what type of airplane they want and asking them open-ended questions rather than yes/no questions.
    Ensure the safety of the hostages. This means convincing the hostage-taker to allow medical treatment or re lease for sick or injured hostages, negotiating the delivery of food and water and negotiating the release of as many hostages as possible. Getting some of the hostages out of the situation not only ensures their safety, but it also simplifies the situation in the event that an armed assault becomes necessary. In addition, released hostages can provide invaluable information about the locations and habits of the captors and the other hostages.
    Keep things calm. From the initial assault through the first hours of negotiations, hostage-takers can be extremely volatile(易波动的). They’re usually angry about whatever perceived injustice has led them to take hostages, and they are filled with adrenaline(肾上腺素) following the excitement of their attack. Angry, excited people with machine guns are not good for hostages. The negotiator should never argue with a hostage-taker and never say no to a demand. Instead, the negotiator should use delaying tactics or make a counter-offer. Above all, the negotiator should keep a positive, upbeat attitude, reassuring the hostage-taker that everything will eventually work out peace fully.
    Foster the growth of relationships between negotiator and hostage-taker and between hostage-taker and hostages. The negotiator must seem credible to the captol. That is, the negotiator must act like he or she understands the reasons for the hostage-taker’s actions but still come across as strong—not just eager to please. The negotiator can also encourage activities that require cooperation and interaction between the captors and the hostages, such as sending food and medical supplies in bulk packages that have to be prepared. When the hostage-taker gets to know the hostages and sees them as human beings, it becomes more difficult to execute them. In a 1975 hostage standoff on a train in Holland, a hostage, Robert de Groot, who had been chosen for death, was spared after the terrorists heard him pray for his wife and children. Some of the hostage-takers wept,and two of them agreed to avoid a fatal shot when they pushed him out of the train. He rolled down an embankment unscathed, played dead and escaped a shot while later. When the terrorists selected other hostages for execution, they didn’t allow prayer and killed them quickly to avoid the emotional strain.
选项 A、Y
B、N
C、NG
答案C
解析 由题干关键词bystanders和stray bullets可将答案定位至第一段第二、四句。但是两句都分别提及了其他情况，而没有说旁观者被流弹打伤的信息。
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