How to deal with a psychopathic hostage taker

Hostage negotiations are always challenging, but never more so than when the hostage taker is a psychopath. Equipping yourself with an understanding of these people, what they can do and how to deal with them is critical for a successful resolution, as Dr Emma Kavanagh explains.

On July 14, 1966, student nurse, Corazon Amurao, answered the door to her South Chicago townhouse, to find 25 year old Richard Speck standing on her doorstep. Before she could react, Speck forced his way inside the house, taking Amurao and five of her housemates hostage. Over the next hour, Speck proceeded to systematically beat and rape the young women, capturing an additional three girls as they arrived home. After hours of torture, Speck finally went on a stabbing spree, killing all of his captives but Amurao, who escaped by rolling under a bed. Speck had lost count of his victims.

In films such as ‘Psycho’ and ‘American Psycho’, popular media has created an enduring image of what it means to be a psychopath (usually axe-wielding) and what it means to come into contact with a psychopath (usually death). However, psychopathy is a complex, multi-faceted phenomenon – a personality disorder unique in its effects and in its resistance to change. The psychopath, with their complete lack of empathy for others, their almost stunning aptitude in manipulating others to their own ends and their staggering capacity to lie, can turn the world of those around them upside down – and with absolutely no desire to ‘recover’ from this particular brand of disorder. Now imagine facing them as a negotiator, when the stress is up, tempers are frayed and lives are at risk.

Psychopathy statistics

Although the figures are sketchy, psychopaths are believed to make up approximately 4 per cent of the general population . In a prison setting, however, psychopaths constitute between 15-25 per cent of the total population . Psychopaths tend to be charged with a greater number and variety of criminal offences , they tend to show greater recidivism and they commit violent and aggressive offences at a particularly high rate . This means that, for any police officer, there is a good chance that they either have at some time in the past, or will some time in the future, come into contact with a psychopathic offender.

When it comes to the hostage negotiator, though, these figures are all the more startling. In a study of prisoners charged with or convicted of unlawful confinement, kidnapping or hostage taking, around half of all such offenders qualified as psychopaths on the Psychopathy Checklist Revised (more on this later). Even more worryingly, 75 per cent of all such offenders scored 23 or above on the checklist. This means that although they didn’t quite make the cut-off for a psychopathy diagnosis (30), another 25 per cent of them were worrying close and displayed clear psychopathic tendencies. For the negotiator, the implications are stark: in any hostage situation, there is a significant possibility that the hostage taker will have, at the least, some psychopathic traits.

Dealing with a psychopath unwittingly can be catastrophic. Negotiation – especially in a fraught climate such as a hostage situation – rests on developing an understanding of the other party, a process that becomes all the more difficult when the various proclivities of the psychopathic personality come into play. The best of negotiators can find themselves seriously back-footed by the unseen manipulations, lies and seemingly bizarre reactions common to the psychopath.

Recognising the psychopath (Psychopathy and the PCL-R)

Identification then is the key. Traditionally though, this key was hard to find. The problem was that a diagnosis of psychopathy rested on the use of self-report measures, which required the subjects themselves to give a full and frank accounting of their own personality. Given the psychopath’s extraordinary gift for lying, this approach was always doomed to failure. Finally, Robert Hare, the renowned forensic