Screening Assessment for Stalking and Harassment (SASH)

The Screening Assessment for Stalking and Harassment (SASH) was originally developed in 2010 by Dr Troy McEwan, Dr Susanne Strand, Dr Rachel MacKenzie and Dr David James as the Stalking Assessment Screen (SAS). On the basis of research with the SAS and findings of our other research, we revised the SAS in 2015 to create the SASH.

The SASH is intended as a decision making aid for police, health professionals, security organizations and other professionals who are dealing with stalking situations but don’t have access to specialised risk assessments. The SASH asks the user to answer questions about the stalking or harassment situation and characteristics of the stalker and victim. The answers are used to identify how concerned they should be about the stalking case, allowing them to prioritise resources towards cases that should cause the greatest concern. The SASH incorporates 13 questions relevant to all stalking situations, and an additional 3 questions that are specific to situations in which the stalker is a former sexual or dating partner.

The SASH is not a comprehensive risk assessment tool. For individuals who are identified as presenting a moderate or high concern, more comprehensive assessment using the SRP or a similar instrument is strongly recommended as part of any risk management plan. The first validation study of the SASH was published in 2017 (Hehemann et al., Journal of Threat Assessment and Management).

The SASH is available on request under specific terms and conditions in English, Swedish, Danish, Italian, German and Dutch. If you are a professional working with stalkers or their victims and are interested in using the SASH in your personal practice, please contact us for a copy. Individual users from not-for-profit and government organisations can access the SASH and the user guidelines free of charge (please use your professional email address in your request). Individual users from private companies can purchase an electronic copy of the SASH and the associated user guidelines for AUD$55.00.

Large organisations (e.g., a police force, security agency or health service) that wish to implement the SASH as a standard screening procedure will be required to sign a legal agreement governing the use of the SASH, and committing to training of their staff. If you represent such an organisation, please contact us to arrange a copy of this agreement. Please use your professional email address in your request.