Hostage and Barricade Incidents in Quebec.

The study examined 534 hostage and barricade situations that occurred in Quebec between 1990 and 2004 and were managed by the Sûreté du Québec's specialized intervention structure. Its objective was to present, using a rigorous methodology that avoids most of the methodological biases of previous study, a comprehensive description of crisis situations occurring in Quebec. Detailed descriptive statistics are presented on: 1) characteristics of individuals in crisis; 2) characteristics of crisis events; 3) weapons used, 4) characteristics of hostages; 5) characteristics of negotiations, 6) level of violence reached during the crisis incident; 7) resolution of the event. Finally, the features of the situations that are specific to Quebec are discussed, by comparing our results with those of a few empirical studies. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]