The backstage work negotiators do when communicating with persons in crisis

Abstract

When a person in crisis threatens suicide, police negotiators engage them in a conversation to prevent death. Working in small teams, the primary negotiator's role is to talk directly to the person in crisis. A secondary negotiator, working “behind the scenes,” supports the ongoing negotiation. Using 31 hours of audio‐recorded British negotiations, we uncover the backstage work of secondary negotiators. We use conversation analysis to identify the sequential position, linguistic form, and action of the secondary negotiator's interventions on (1) the delivery (e.g. “sound angry”) and (2) next actions (e.g. “say please,” “try asking them to move”) of the primary negotiator, and how the primary incorporates them into the negotiation. Our analysis shows that, while some suggestions were effective, others disrupted the flow of the negotiation as well as the alignment between primary negotiator and person in crisis. The paper augments current sociolinguistic understandings of the high‐stakes language activity of crisis negotiation and highlights the importance of attending to linguistic features of interaction when training negotiators to work better as a team.

“I Just Want to Be Left Alone”: Novel Sociological Insights Into Dramaturgical Demands on Professional Athletes

“…Other examples of studies of employees' front-and back-stage behavior include police negotiators talking with those at risk of suicide (Stokoe and Sikveland, 2019), the nature of collaborative interprofessional relations in acute care settings (Lewin and Reeves, 2011), and how healthcare professionals engage with surveillance at the micro-level of interaction (Visser et al, 2018).…”

Subjective experiences of the first response to mental health crises in the community: a qualitative systematic review

“…In contrast, PMI and companions praised FRs when they used a gentle approach, avoided excessive force by engaging meaningfully with them, using de-escalation and communication techniques 18 28–32 35 37 40 43–48. They valued FRs being professional, non-judgmental and compassionate, providing reassurance, expressing a wish to help, asking for permission to examine or touch the PMI, and including them in decision making 18 24 31 32 45 48–51.…”

“…In contrast, PMI and companions praised FRs when they used a gentle approach, avoided excessive force by engaging meaningfully with them, using de-escalation and communication techniques 18 28–32 35 37 40 43–48. They valued FRs being professional, non-judgmental and compassionate, providing reassurance, expressing a wish to help, asking for permission to examine or touch the PMI, and including them in decision making 18 24 31 32 45 48–51. FRs assumed a non-threatening presence by maintaining eye contact, not standing with arms crossed, altering their tone and taking a low-profile approach to protect PMI privacy, and by not using police uniform or vehicles 26 30 34 37 40 52.…”

En människa bland andra?

“…Denna förklaringsmodell kan användas i vidare forskning i andra sammanhang för att ge förståelse av människors agerande vid kriser . Andra krisstudier (Nevile 2013;Iversen 2019;Sikveland, Kevoe-Feldman & Stokoe 2019;Stokoe & Sikveland 2020) har visat hur sociala aktörer i akuta skeenden arbetar för att etablera gemensamma definitioner av situationer för att på så sätt möjliggöra handlande . Vår studie visar hur människor även i den långdragna krisen arbetar för att skapa sammanhang och hur krisens utdragenhet är en del av själva problemet: att etablera en vardag i krisen innebär specifika utmaningar när det gäller tillit eftersom definitioner och normer måste vara långsiktigt hållbara snarare än tillfälliga substitut .…”