Reframing practices in moral conflict: interaction problems in the negotiation standoff at Waco

Abstract

This study is an analysis of several telephone conversations between FBI negotiators and David Koresh during the 51-day FBI—Branch Davidian standoff outside Waco, Texas, in 1993. The analysis shows how different reframing practices reveal interactional troubles the negotiators faced in dealing with the incompatibility of their legal frame for the situation and the Davidians' religious one. These practices shed new light on reframing in crisis negotiation steeped in moral conflict, describing it as a problematic conversational practice rather than a prescribed path to resolution.