Hostage Situation the Main Difference Between a Essay

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Hostage Situation

The main difference between a hostage situation and a non-hostage situation is the threat to human life. "In most hostage incidents, the explicit threat is to the hostage's life. It is not the loss of property, status, or belonging to a community that is at stake. Life itself is at stake" (McMains & Mullins, 2010, p.12). The threat to human life gives the hostage-taker an advantage in the bargaining process, because it increases the press associated with an incident and increases the stakes of the negotiation.

A bank robber goes into the bank, but the police are alerted before he can leave. The bank robber takes one of the bank's customers and holds her at gunpoint, until the robber can reach the getaway vehicle. This is a hostage situation. The life of the teller has been threatened by the bank robber. The bank robber does not have to say that he will kill the teller if he is apprehended; the fact that he has a gun to the teller's head is sufficient to serve as an explicit threat to the teller's life. The bank robber has also taken all of the money that was in the bank's vault.

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Because a human life is at stake, the goal of the negotiator is to negotiate the release of the hostage without concern for the money. In hostage situations, the goal is always the release of the human hostage and not preservation of property. Therefore, the negotiator may be willing to agree to terms and conditions, such as providing safe getaway transportation for the criminal, which would not be available in a property scenario.

A bank robber goes into a bank with a weapon and orders all of the people out of the bank. He locks the doors and, when contacted by the negotiator, he says that he has wired the vault with explosives and that he will blow up the vault if anyone approaches the bank. This is not a hostage situation. No one's life has been threatened by the robber. Therefore, the negotiator does not….....

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