Real-Life Math
Math does play a role in hostage negotiations. During a hostage
incident, simple math calculations can be used to estimate a variety of things.
These
can include figuring out how long a barricaded subject might last without
food or water. There can also be situations where a negotiator might need
to make a hasty calculation based on shots fired in an incident.
In
a situation like this, the negotiator could potentially estimate the number
of bullets a suspect may have left. The negotiator would then be able to make
a better decision as to when to send in the SWAT team.
Theodore B.
Feldmann is an associate professor in psychiatry and behavioral sciences at
the University of Louisville. He received training in hostage negotiation
at the FBI Academy and is considered an expert in hostage negotiation and
crisis management.
The following is taken from Feldmann's paper, entitled
Characteristics of Hostage and Barricade Incidents: Implications for Negotiation
Strategies and Training. It shows how Feldmann categorized a total of 120
hostage incidents taken from police files.
Categorization of Incidents
Six
categories of hostage-barricade incidents with distinct characteristics were
identified (see Table 6):
- Persons involved in personal or domestic disputes (30.8%)
- Dubjects involved in other criminal acts, such as robbery attempts (25.8%)
- Mentally ill persons for whom no other motivation was present (19.2%)
- Incidents associated with workplace violence (11.7%)
- Alcohol or drug related incidents (7.5%)
- Students (5%)
In this excerpt, there is a reference to Table 6 in his paper. Pretend
you are a hostage negotiator consultant to the FBI. You must prepare an easy-to-read
table to help FBI negotiators better understand who is involved in the most
common types of hostage incidents.
Your Table 6 must contain 3 columns:
Category, Number of Incidents and Percentage. You will need to calculate the
total number of incidents in each category from the percentages provided in
the excerpt, based on the total number of incidents, which is 120.