High Warning Behaviors

Have you ever sat down to watch the evening news and simply wondered why people do the things that they do or what would drive them to behave in such a way? Although human beings are fundamentally resilient, we all have a breaking point. However, the situation that follows can vary substantially from person to person. Some people, by nature, are prone to more violent behavior, while others just simply do not have the skills or the resources to cope effectively with their circumstances. Even though most innate human behaviors can never truly be prophesied with any real form of accuracy, there are ways to assess the potential for a person to respond to certain situations with a given behavior. For instance, one of the best predictors of imminent behavior is a person’s past behavior or actions (Vecchi, 2009). Although individuals can (and do) change over time, the likelihood of a person’s organic behavioral pattern changing is generally quite limited, particularly if they haven’t been taught new ways to cope with stressful situations. “Given this

This is especially true with regard to high-crisis conditions involving crime. Being able to identify the warning signs before a conflict takes place is difficult but a necessary skill that both law enforcement and other first responders need to acquire throughout the course of their career, and given the current levels of tensions across the country, developing such skills early is obviously preferable. According to Strentz (2013), “recent research has shown there are more than 166 tasks required of a negotiator during this life-saving process” (p. 17). Consequently, more and more crime response units are turning to the help of crisis negotiation teams to handle situations involving high tensions, such as in hostage and/or barricade