Hostage and crisis negotiators are police officers who have been trained to respond to and resolve hostage and crisis incidents. They are often required to respond to highly-pressurised and emotive incidents that may last for protracted periods of time and are likely to encounter situations whereby their actions could play a role in whether individuals live or die. The first aim of the current thesis was to identify whether negotiators in the United Kingdom (UK) possess certain traits or characteristics that serve to enable them to perform their role effectively and differentiate them from the wider police population. The first phase of the research involved a quantitative cross-sectional comparison of a sample of hostage and crisis negotiators (n = 117) with a sample of non-negotiator police officers (n = 118) from 21 UK forces and a sample of students (n = 203) utilising a psychometric test battery measuring five constructs previously identified within the literature as playing a role in success within occupational settings: Personality, Coping Style, Cognitive Emotion Regulation, Decision-Making Style and Emotional Intelligence. The findings refuted the existence of a “unique hostage and crisis negotiator profile” but confirmed the existence of a unique “police officer profile” by demonstrating significant differences between both police samples and the student sample in relation to all constructs measured. These findings are discussed with reference to the implications for the selection, training and CPD of UK negotiators. Hostage and crisis negotiation is one of many options available to police incident commanders and is well-established as an effective means of resolving hostage and crisis incidents. Whilst there is a plethora of published literature relating to the entity of hostage and crisis negotiation, the majority of this literature has been developed within the United States of America (USA), on the basis of USA negotiator deployments and experiences. The second aim, therefore, was to provide an insight into the discipline of negotiation in the UK by conducting a constructivist grounded theory analysis of the experiences of negotiators as derived from semi-structured interviews with 15 negotiators from nine UK police forces. The findings allowed for the development of five grounded theoretical micro-models: a) The Nature and Characteristics of UK Hostage and Crisis Negotiation, b) The UK Hostage and Crisis Negotiator Journey, c) The UK-Centric D.I.A.M.O.N.D. Procedural Model of Hostage and Crisis Negotiation, d) The UK Hostage and Crisis Negotiator Experience, and e) The Self-Perceived Successful UK Hostage and Crisis Negotiator Profile. These micro-models are discussed with reference to their implications for hostage and crisis negotiation policy and practice in a UK-centric context.

O fenômeno do ativismo jurisdicional tem como causa a crise do direito. Uma releitura do tema a partir de uma perspectiva existencial permite concluir que sua origem assenta-se na perda do sentido da ocupação e preocupação do homem em relação ao direito. Esta crise articula-se, grosso modo, em dois níveis distintos. De um lado, pelo desgaste do modelo de racionalização contido na proposta da tripartição de poderes de Montesquieu; de outro, na perda do sentido do direito como forma de controle social no processo de incorporação da armação da técnica. Diante da anomia do legislador e do Estado aos desafios atuais em torno do direito, presencia-se, na atualidade, o aumento do ativismo jurisdicional na definição do conteúdo do direito continental. Dentro das possibilidades abertas no horizonte da experiência histórica, a evolução do direito continental permite constatar que esta se formou e perpetua-se a partir dos conceitos antagônicos de mutabilidade (em ajuste às necessidades da evolução da sociedade), mas também de segurança jurídica (representada pela norma posta). Um aumento do ativismo jurisdicional que pretenda preservar a experiência da tradição do direito continental exige que a ocupação e preocupação em torno do Direito se deem em aderência à experiência compartilhada dentro do mundo das vivências e no fino equilíbrio dos conceitos de normas sociais e de garantia, sem o que, no extremo da projeção do Dasein no horizonte de sua injunção social, teríamos inevitavelmente um processo de ruptura conceitual da experiência do Direito ou a anulação do Dasein perante o Direito. / The phenomenon of the jurisdictional activism is caused by the crisis of law. A re-reading of the theme from an existential perspective allows for the conclusion that its origin is based on the loss of mans care and concern sense regarding the law. Broadly, this crisis articulates in two distinct levels. On one side, by the rationalization model exhaustion contained in the tripartite division of powers proposed by Montesquieu; on the other side, in the loss of law sense as a way of social control in the incorporation process of the frame of the technique. As a consequence of the anomy of the legislature branch and the State to the current challenges around the law, the increase of the jurisdictional activism in the definition of the continental law content can be contemporarily noticed. Within the possibilities opened in the historical experience scope, the evolution of the continental law allows for the observation that it was formed and continues from the antagonistic concepts of mutability (adjusted to the evolution needs of the society), but also of legal security (represented by the rule provided for). An increase of the jurisdictional activism intending to preserve the experience of the continental law tradition requires that the care and concern concerning the law comply with the experience shared within the world of experiences and in the fine balance of the social rules and guarantee concepts, without which, in the extreme of the Dasein projection in the scope of its social injunction, we would inevitably have a process of conceptual rupture of the law experience or annulment of Dasein before the law.

O fenômeno do ativismo jurisdicional tem como causa a crise do direito. Uma releitura do tema a partir de uma perspectiva existencial permite concluir que sua origem assenta-se na perda do sentido da ocupação e preocupação do homem em relação ao direito. Esta crise articula-se, grosso modo, em dois níveis distintos. De um lado, pelo desgaste do modelo de racionalização contido na proposta da tripartição de poderes de Montesquieu; de outro, na perda do sentido do direito como forma de controle social no processo de incorporação da armação da técnica. Diante da anomia do legislador e do Estado aos desafios atuais em torno do direito, presencia-se, na atualidade, o aumento do ativismo jurisdicional na definição do conteúdo do direito continental. Dentro das possibilidades abertas no horizonte da experiência histórica, a evolução do direito continental permite constatar que esta se formou e perpetua-se a partir dos conceitos antagônicos de mutabilidade (em ajuste às necessidades da evolução da sociedade), mas também de segurança jurídica (representada pela norma posta). Um aumento do ativismo jurisdicional que pretenda preservar a experiência da tradição do direito continental exige que a ocupação e preocupação em torno do Direito se deem em aderência à experiência compartilhada dentro do mundo das vivências e no fino equilíbrio dos conceitos de normas sociais e de garantia, sem o que, no extremo da projeção do Dasein no horizonte de sua injunção social, teríamos inevitavelmente um processo de ruptura conceitual da experiência do Direito ou a anulação do Dasein perante o Direito. / The phenomenon of the jurisdictional activism is caused by the crisis of law. A re-reading of the theme from an existential perspective allows for the conclusion that its origin is based on the loss of mans care and concern sense regarding the law. Broadly, this crisis articulates in two distinct levels. On one side, by the rationalization model exhaustion contained in the tripartite division of powers proposed by Montesquieu; on the other side, in the loss of law sense as a way of social control in the incorporation process of the frame of the technique. As a consequence of the anomy of the legislature branch and the State to the current challenges around the law, the increase of the jurisdictional activism in the definition of the continental law content can be contemporarily noticed. Within the possibilities opened in the historical experience scope, the evolution of the continental law allows for the observation that it was formed and continues from the antagonistic concepts of mutability (adjusted to the evolution needs of the society), but also of legal security (represented by the rule provided for). An increase of the jurisdictional activism intending to preserve the experience of the continental law tradition requires that the care and concern concerning the law comply with the experience shared within the world of experiences and in the fine balance of the social rules and guarantee concepts, without which, in the extreme of the Dasein projection in the scope of its social injunction, we would inevitably have a process of conceptual rupture of the law experience or annulment of Dasein before the law.