[1] In psychiatric settings, de-escalation is aimed at calmly communicating with an agitated client in order to understand, manage, and resolve their concerns.
police forces in the US adopted de-escalation training, designed to reduce the risk of confrontations turning violent or deadly for anyone involved.
[8][9][10][11][12][13] The FIRST STEP Act prison reform bill, passed under the Trump administration, mandates de-escalation training, especially for "incidents that involve the unique needs of individuals who have a mental illness or cognitive deficit.
[16] Media reports on the use of force, racial unrest, riots and injustice make it seem like conflicts between police and citizens are happening every day.
It is at these times that “officers can turn to de-escalation tactics and still complete their mission to protect and serve.”[16] Oliva et al. note, “As the role of police officers continues to expand from exclusively crime fighting to encompass other service-oriented functions, they must be able to recognize the characteristics of individuals in crisis in order to provide an effective and helpful resolution to the situation while reducing liability and risk of injury” (p. 16.)
[17] De-escalation tactics predominantly revolved around securing the scene at hand and attempting to calmly communicate with the citizen involved.
[18] This program, which has come to be known as the Memphis Model, provides law enforcement with crisis intervention training to particularly help those with mental illness.
[18] Compton et al. (2008) conducted a comprehensive review of the existing research on the effectiveness of the Memphis Model of the Crisis Intervention Team.
[19] While research is limited, the authors note that there is preliminary support that the Memphis Model may be helpful in connecting those with mental illness to the psychiatric services that they need.
[19] The CIT programs around the country seem limited to addressing instituting de-escalation interventions with the mentally ill and not with the broader range of offenders that law enforcement officers may encounter.
[21] Traditional deescalation training relies on a combination of direct instruction (e.g., lectures, presentations, webinars), group discussion, and live "peer role-play" among class participants.
[24] This has led an increasing number of agencies and organizations in healthcare and law enforcement to adopt simulation-based de-escalation training over peer roleplay.
Simulation-based training follows many of the basic de-escalation approaches noted above (e.g. effective communication and assessment of the scene) but is done through screen-based or head-mounted virtual reality simulator.
Despite being more immersive according to some studies,[30] the reliance on lower-fidelity computer-generated environments and characters make such systems better suited to single-person training on decision-making and de-escalation.
In such cases, an alternative peaceful resolution is offered to a belligerent (i.e. nation or person engaged in war or conflict) in order to avoid further bloodshed.