Request for Papers
Methodological Perspectives on Critical Incident Analysis

The Academy for Critical Incident Analysis (ACIA) at John Jay College of Criminal Justice seeks proposals for papers to be presented at a Symposium on Critical Incident Analysis tentatively scheduled to take September 24-26, 2008. ACIA intends to publish a set of the papers in symposium proceedings.

The goal of the symposium and of presentations of the papers is to guide ACIA in shaping a program of scholarship and research that reflects the most promising approaches to critical incident analysis. Each of the invited papers will be grounded in an academic or professional discipline, and should accomplish the following:

• Present the discipline’s definition(s) and theoretical frameworks for incident analysis, and examine how this definition corresponds to the ACIA working definition of a critical incident;
• Review methodological approaches applied in the discipline to the analysis of incidents;
• Assess the nature of the underlying information used in the analyses, including sources of information, and qualitative or quantitative measures constructed;
• Identify current and emerging issues that are the focus of research in the discipline, for the analysis of incidents; and
• Assess, as examples, how the discipline might approach analysis of the following incidents:
  • The recent intervention at the Yearning for Zion (YFZ) Ranch in Eldorado, Texas;
  • The Virginia Tech campus shooting incident; and
  • The sinking of the Titanic.

The papers should consider the ACIA working definition of a “critical incident” which can be summarized as follows:

A Critical Incident is a relatively brief occurrence involving injury, loss, conflict, discovery or change of significant proportion, usually unscripted and unanticipated, with the potential to alter existing societal norms. Critical incidents are usually traumatic, threatening the bonds of trust that bind communities, but may be positive, initiating historic consequents.

Not all incidents are, based on the ACIA conceptualization, critical incidents. Key distinguishing factors include:

• The event is unexpected, at least by those who are not perpetrators or initiators.
• There is a consequential impact on many at the time of occurrence.
• The event and its immediate impact are limited in time and space, making it an incident or episode rather than a condition, such as war or poverty or pandemic.
• There is potential for much larger gain or loss or change, depending upon the event itself, the actions of those accountable for managing such incidents, and other important variables, such as the stability or fragility of the community in which the event occurs.

Proposals for papers will be considered on an ongoing basis, and the decision to invite a paper and presentation will be made by a subcommittee of the ACIA Council. ACIA will provide an honorarium of $2,500 for the authorship of each paper, and ACIA will support travel costs associated with attending the Symposium tentatively scheduled for September 24-26, 2008. ACIA will be entitled to publish the paper in the Symposium Proceedings. Proposals for co-authored proposals will be accepted, in which case the honorarium will be split equally between the co-authors. However, if a paper is proposed in which a student is a co-author, the honoraria will be raised to $3,000 and will be split equally between the co-authors.

If a proposal is accepted, a written agreement will be executed between ACIA and the author(s). Preliminary working drafts of papers must be submitted by August 1, 2008. These will be circulated to one or more ACIA Board Members or Fellows for advisory comments and suggestions. Final versions must be submitted by September 8, 2008 for inclusion in the Symposium program.

Proposals should be submitted to Professor Ned Benton, ACIA Executive Director, at nbenton@jjay.cuny.edu. A proposal should a) identify the academic or professional discipline involved, b) summarize the author’s qualification and experience in the discipline; and c) explain how the paper will approach the five points set out in the second paragraph of this RFP.