Crisis Management

This is a hostage situation, because Bradley is holding Susan, her professor, and nine other students in a room. Bradley has weapons and is in a distraught emotional state, refusing to let any of the hostages leave. "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). Therefore, this qualifies as a hostage situation. However, it is a specialized type of hostage scenario in that one of the hostages, Susan, is Bradley's wife. In a true hostage scenario, the "hostage has no value to the hostage taker as a person" (McMains & Mullins, 2010, p.13). In a family-violence hostage scenario, the hostage has value to the hostage taker as a person. The other nine students and the professor do...
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