Validation of the Stalking Assessment and Management Checklist (SAM) in Law Enforcement: A Prospective Study of 153 Cases of Stalking in Two Swedish Police Counties

Abstract

The overall aim of this study was to test the validity and the practical usefulness of the Stalking Assessment and Management checklist (SAM) within the police. Police officers in two police counties in Sweden were trained in using the Stalking Assessment and Management checklist (Kropp, Hart, & Lyon, 2007) in real-life cases of reported stalking during the period May 2005 to December 2006 (N = 230). Results showed that the SAM was easy to code for the police, since there were very few cases of missing information coded by the police. Most importantly, the validity of the SAM was found to be very strong in terms of a strong correlation between factors included in the SAM and the degree of risk assessed by the police officers. The more SAM risk factors coded by the police officers concerning the alleged perpetrators, the higher the risk assessed for repeated stalking and violence. The same results were found concerning victim vulnerability factors. Those victims that were assessed to be at higher risk than others generally had more of the SAM victim vulnerability factors. We conclude that the SAM seems to be a valid and useful tool for use by law enforcement professionals in cases of alleged stalking.

Keywords

stalking SAM checklist policing Sweden crime victims victimology

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