The Screening Assessment for Stalking and Harassment (SASH) is a brief assessment designed to help frontline professionals prioritize stalking and harassment cases for further response. The SASH was developed due to the dearth of frontline assessment tools specifically for stalking, which differs from intimate partner violence in important ways (both the context of the behavior and who it affects). The number and variety of harassment and stalking cases can overwhelm the resources of first responders such as police, victim shelters, and security services. The SASH is designed to help workers in these agencies make informed decisions about prioritization of resources toward cases that are most likely to require additional investigation or management to prevent harm. This article describes the development and structure of the SASH, its use, and empirical findings regarding its reliability and validity.
Development of the SASH
The SASH was developed by a team of Australian and Swedish clinicians and researchers with expertise in risk assessment of stalking, harassment, and intimate partner violence. Originally called the Stalking Assessment Screen, a 15-item version was developed in 2010 from a review of relevant stalking, violence, and intimate partner violence risk assessment literature. When creating SASH items, the authors also considered the content of three existing structured professional judgment risk assessment instruments that were relevant to stalking: the Stalking Risk Profile (SRP), the Guidelines for Stalking Assessment and Management, and the Brief Spousal Assault Form for the Evaluation of Risk. After reliability and validity trials in Sweden and Australia, the instrument was updated and published as the SASH in 2015.
The SASH does not provide a comprehensive assessment of stalking risk. Rather, it aims to accurately identify cases that require no more than a standard frontline response and separate them from cases that may require additional assessment or management to protect the victim. In this way, the SASH can help frontline workers to make evidence-based decisions about prioritizing cases for further attention or referral to specialist services.
Using the SASH
The SASH is a single-page instrument available in English, Swedish, Dutch, German, and Italian, accompanied by a 20-page user guide. The SASH is designed for use by first responders in stalking situations, such as in general and specialist police teams, domestic violence shelters, security or threat management teams, mental health and forensic mental health agencies, and probation or correctional services. No specialist training or expertise is required to use the SASH, though users are recommended to read the guidelines that provide additional information about rating items and developing responses.
The SASH helps to identify cases that are more likely to involve physical violence or prolonged stalking behavior, both of which can be highly damaging to victims. The SASH should be used only in cases where there is evidence of a current pattern of stalking or harassment—that is, a pattern of repeated, unwanted communications or contacts that cause the target apprehension, distress, or fear that occurs outside of an ongoing intimate relationship. The SASH can be used with perpetrators of either sex, when both the perpetrator and target are over the age of 18 years, and where there is no ongoing relationship between them.
Structure of the SASH
The SASH consists of 16 items, 13 scored in all cases, and 3 scored only if the stalker is a former dating partner or sexual intimate of the target. All items are scored as present, absent, or not known. SASH items evaluate the pattern of current stalking behavior, the background of the perpetrator and the perpetrator’s relationship with the victim, situational factors that may exacerbate the stalking, and the current mental state of the perpetrator and victim. The user is required to make a judgment about his or her level of concern based on the number and nature of items that are known at the time of the assessment. Although concern levels should be closely tied to the number of items present, they can be adjusted if there is something unique about the case that warrants greater or lesser concern. The level of concern is recorded as follows:
- Low: Only 1 or 2 items are present. Standard organizational procedures for stalking/ harassment cases should be followed.
- Moderate: Several items are present. The case should be prioritized and given an enhanced response.
- High: Many risk factors are present or specific risk factors suggest imminent and/or severe negative outcomes. The case requires an urgent and comprehensive response.
Given the variety of settings in which the SASH can be used, only general guidance on recommended responses for each concern level is provided. Users are instructed to develop specific responses for each concern level that are relevant to their setting.
Reliability and Validity of the SASH
The authors’ unpublished development evaluation of the SASH examined interrater reliability from file review of 34 cases, finding significant κ values for all items (ranging from 0.47 to 0.88) and average-level agreement between raters that an item is present or absent of 90% (ranging from 75% to 97%, depending on item). Convergent validity was investigated by comparing SASH results with those of the SRP in 75 cases (SRP completed at client assessment, SASH from file review). SASH and SRP outcomes were significantly and positively related, with approximately 13% of cases resulting in a problematic incorrect outcome, being judged low concern with the SASH but moderate or high risk with the SRP. Predictive validity in a subsample of 37 stalkers was promising, with no stalkers judged low concern having subsequent police charges for stalking over the following 12 months, one third of moderate concern cases, and just over half of high concern cases.
In an evaluation by the Netherlands National Police published in 2017, the SASH concern level was shown to have a moderate to strong ability to discriminate between stalkers with and without further victim reports to police (area under curve = .68), while interrater reliability was assessed by comparing the results of five police members in five cases. Item ratings were consistent 81% of the time (with variability by item), though reliability of concern judgments was lower, achieving only 59% agreement, which motivated the development of training and translation of the user manual to ensure greater consistency.
References:
- Hehemann, K., van Nobelen, D., Brandt, C., & McEwan, T. E. (2017). The reliability and predictive validity of the Screening Assessment for Stalking and Harassment (SASH). Journal of Threat Assessment and Management, 4, 164–177.
- McEwan, T. E., Ogloff, J. R. P., & Pathé, M. (2011). Advances in stalking risk assessment. Behavioral Sciences & the Law, 29, 180–201. doi:10.1002/bsl.973
- McEwan, T. E., Strand, S., MacKenzie, R. D., & James, D. V. (2017). Screening assessment for stalking and harassment (SASH): Guidelines for application and interpretation. Melbourne, Australia: StalkInc.
- Mullen, P. E., MacKenzie, R. D., Ogloff, J. R. P., Pathé, M., McEwan, T. E., & Purcell, R. (2006). Assessing and managing the risks in the stalking situation. Journal of the American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law, 34, 439–450.