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Treating Stalking
A Practical Guide for Clinicians

TROY McEWAN
Centre for Forensic Behavioural Science
Swinburne University of Technology
and Forensicare
Australia

MICHELE GALIETTA
John Jay College and
City University of New York
USA

and

ALAN UNDERWOOD
Stalking Threat Assessment Centre,
North London Forensic Services
Queen Mary University of London
United Kingdom
This edition first published 2024
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For Cleo, and the only good relationship that was ever started by stalking. Thanks
for sharing your considerable knowledge about stalking, for being able to see the
funny side of all of this, and for putting up with this book getting written.

For my grandfather Ron who gave me the opportunity for postgraduate study
by covering my course fees. Without his constant encouragement and stub-
born refusal to accept any attempts to repay him, I would not have been here to
write this.

For my mother, Dr Maryann Galietta, who proved that women can indeed “have
it all.” Through her actions and choices, she modelled love of family, love of the
pursuit of knowledge, and how to do the tightrope act that comes with balancing
these – always with compassion, strength, and a good measure of common sense.
Thank you Mom!
Contents
AC KN OWL E D G E M EN TS vii
ABOU T TH E COM PA N IO N W EBS IT E viii

Introduction 1
What Is Stalking? 5
Why Is Treatment for Stalking Needed? 6
Key Facts About Stalking 9
Explaining Stalking 11
Laws Prohibiting Stalking 12
The Use of Anti-­stalking Laws 13
Recognising Stalking 14
Biases Influencing This Book 18
Overview of This Book 19
Conclusion 20
References 21

Part 1 A Rationale for Stalking Treatment 29

1 Key Components and Principles of Stalking Treatment 31

Who to Treat? 32
What to Treat? 32
How to Treat 34
10 Principles for Treating Stalking 39
Summary 53
References 54

Part 2 Assessing Stalking 59

2 Preparing for and Conducting the Initial Assessment 61

The Role of Structured Risk Assessment in Assessing Stalking 63
Ethical Considerations When Conducting a Stalking Assessment 64
Preparing for the Assessment Interview 65
Approach to and Structure of the Interview 70
Assess the Person’s Current Circumstances 72
Assess the Stalking Situation 73
Assess Personal History 86

iv
 Contents v

Psychometric Testing 92
Conclusion 93
References 94

3 Understanding and Assessing Stalking Risks 98

Types of Risk in Stalking Cases 99
Structured Guidelines for Assessing Stalking Risks 105
Choosing Which SPJ Guidelines to Use 110
Using the Results of the SPJ Risk Assessment 112
Conclusion 113
References 114

4 Formulating Stalking Behaviour 118

What Is Formulation? 118
What Makes a Good Formulation? 122
Steps to Developing a Good Forensic Formulation 123
Sharing the Formulation With Clients 131
From Formulation to Treatment Planning 132
Behavioural Formulation of Stalking 132
Conclusion 140
References 141

Part 3 Treating Stalking 145

5 Developing a Treatment Plan and Strategies for Treatment 147

Steps in Developing a Treatment Plan 148
Practising Skills During Treatment 153
Treatment Strategies for Common Treatment Needs 154
Strategies That Target Awareness of Experience 155
Strategies That Target Acceptance 159
Skills to Decrease Impulsive Behaviour 161
Strategies to Improve Understanding, Tolerance, and Regulation of
Emotional States 164
Cognitive Strategies to Reduce Impulsive Behaviour 168
Interventions to Address Thinking Patterns Supporting Stalking 172
Social Skills 180
Strategies to Help Build a Meaningful Life Without Stalking 182
Strategies for Successful Discharge and Continued Abstinence
From Stalking 188
Conclusion 189
References 190
vi Contents

6 Establishing, Structuring, and Managing Treatment 193

Before Treatment Begins 194
Early Phase of Treatment 205
Mid to Late Phase of Treatment 216
Ending Phase of Treatment 227
Conclusion 230
References 230
7 Planning for and Managing Risk During Treatment 232
Drawing on the Formulation to Guide Risk Management 233
Early Phase of Treatment 237
Mid to Late Phase of Treatment 246
Ending Phase of Treatment 250
Responding to Increased Risk During Treatment 254
Conclusion 261
References 261
8 Multiagency Work When Managing Stalking 263
Why Is Multiagency Work in Stalking Cases Important? 264
The Practicalities of Multiagency Work 265
How Does Multiagency Cooperation Work Best? 267
A Framework for Multiagency Stalking Response 267
Considerations for Multiagency Work in Specific Contexts 272
Where Can Multiagency Work Go Wrong? 274
Examples of Organisations That Routinely Do Multiagency
Stalking Work 277
Summary 279
References 279

Part 4 Towards an Evidence Base for Treating

Stalking 281

9 Where to for Stalking Treatment? 283

Where We Have Come From 284
Some Thoughts About Where We Might Go 286
An Agenda for Future Stalking Research 289
Summary 299
Conclusions 300
References 302

I N DEX 307
Acknowledgements
Our sincere thanks to our colleagues Prof. Barry Rosenfeld, Dr Frank ­Farnham,
Dr David James, Prof. Jim Ogloff, Prof. Michele Pathé, Prof. Paul Mullen,
Dr Rachel MacKenzie, Prof. Rosemary Purcell, Dr Sara Henley, and Prof. Ste-
phen Hart for sharing their expertise and knowledge with us over many years.
We also acknowledge colleagues we have worked with and learned from at
Forensicare’s Problem Behaviour Program, the Stalking Threat Assessment
Centre and National Stalking Clinic, and the SHARP Research Team. Without
the opportunity to work with and learn from them, this book would not have
been possible.
Alan’s heartful thanks to Ellie, who has endured the proxy process of
writing (and the hearing about it) for the last two years with grace, good
humour, infinite patience, and the copious provision of tea. Without your
steadfast support, I would not have managed it.
Finally, we would like to thank the clients who have taught us so
much over many years of practice and who have been willing to share their
information and time by participating in research, knowing that it was for our
scientific endeavours and not necessarily their own benefit.

vii
About the
Companion Website
This book is accompanied by the companion website:

www.wiley.com/go/McEwan/APracticalGuideforClinicians

The website includes:

Printable handouts and colour version of treatment worksheets

viii
Introduction
S
ince emerging as a concept about 35 years ago, stalking has been con-
sidered a harmful behaviour that warrants a societal response. This
has brought stalking into the realm of mental health professionals
and behavioural scientists, particularly those working within criminal jus-
tice agencies and mental health services that are tasked with intervening to
reduce risks and prevent harm. Yet, despite three decades of stalking research,
there remain few studies examining effective treatment and management of
people who stalk. This leaves efforts to treat stalking poorly evidence-­based
and wholly reliant on the knowledge and ability of individual clinicians.
As clinicians with specific interest in stalking, we find the lack of research
on treatment and management of people who stalk troubling. ­Stalking
­victimisation affects approximately 15% of adults during their lifetime, and
in half of cases persists for six months or more. The majority of victims are
threatened, a substantial minority are physically assaulted, and stalking
­victimisation is known to lead to significant psychological and social harm.
Fifty percent of people whose stalking attracts criminal justice attention
­continue to stalk, even after ­conviction. Treatment of people who stalk may
be one of the few ways to provide long-­term relief for stalking victims, yet it
has attracted little research attention compared to similar harmful behaviours
such as violence or sexual offending.
Between us, we have over 50 years of combined experience working with
people who stalk across three different continents. We also have the benefit
of the collective wisdom of our colleagues, who have a wealth of knowledge
in this area. We wrote this book in an effort to distil some of this knowledge
and experience into a detailed and comprehensive how-­to guide for therapists
working with people who stalk. Our goal is to present a structured and practi-
cal approach to treating stalking behaviour based on principles and strategies
that we have found to be effective in our practice.
We begin the book with a case study. Reflecting on our bias as practicing
clinicians, we find that case vignettes are often the most effective way of com-
municating complex clinical ideas, and we make use of them throughout the
book. In this introductory chapter, we have chosen a case study that demon-
strates the kinds of problems that often arise when trying to treat stalking
behaviour and why a specialist approach is needed. The chapter goes on to
argue why treatment of people who stalk is warranted, and why it requires
specific knowledge to do well. We then describe the nature and scope of the

Treating Stalking: A Practical Guide for Clinicians, First Edition. Troy McEwan,
Michele Galietta and Alan Underwood.
© 2024 John Wiley & Sons Ltd. Published 2024 by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.
Companion website: www.wiley.com/go/McEwan/APracticalGuideforClinicians

1
2 Introduction

problem of stalking, and how criminal justice systems have tried (and often
failed) to respond to it adequately. We emphasise the importance of being
able to recognise stalking in clinical practice and provide advice about how
to do so, so it is clear when treatment for this pernicious behaviour is needed.
Finally, this introductory chapter concludes by considering the biases inher-
ent in our approach to stalking, before providing an overview of the remainder
of the book.
Our primary goal in writing this book, the first specifically devoted to
treating stalking, is to help clinicians grappling with understanding their
­clients’ behaviour and trying to manage the risk that they pose to others.
However, we also hope that the book prompts new research interest in this
under-­studied area. We would very much like our book to be a starting point
that can both guide practice and inspire further therapeutic and research
developments in this field.

CAS E EXAM P LE

I wish there was a logical explanation for my obsession with you, which
has been there for so long … Maybe I just want you to think of me,
every day and preferably every hour. That is the best I can achieve … I
don’t care how you think of me, only that you think of me. That I exist,
that you know me and don’t forget me … I can only repeat myself and
tell you about all the great things [about you] that have touched me
so deeply. That make me want to be a part of your life, even if it is the
blackest page in your life, as your stalker.

This letter was sent from prison by a man who had been stalking the woman he
was writing to for over three years. Although he had known the woman when
they were children, three decades later the two were strangers and the stalk-
ing began when she accepted his request to link up on a social media site. He
proceeded to bombard her with messages, gradually escalating to locating her
home and workplace, knocking on her door, and entering her home when she
was not there to leave her gifts of flowers, money, and underwear. He followed
her in the street, loitered outside her workplace, and all the while continued to
try to communicate with her via phone, social media, and occasional letters.
The intensity of the behaviour waxed and waned over three years, but there was
rarely a week without at least one unwanted contact. Eventually, he was arrested,
convicted, and imprisoned. The stalking was his first serious offence and after a
brief period of incarceration the man was placed in a residential mental health
service in the community to receive court-­ordered assessment and treatment.
He had been receiving psychological and psychiatric treatment for nearly a year
when the treating clinician ­contacted one of us for peer ­supervision. The man’s
 Introduction 3

CAS E EXAMP LE (continued)

court order was coming to an end in a few months, and he would be discharged,
but the treating team was worried about the stalking victim’s safety.
The clinician reported that the man insisted that the victim wanted his
contact and had only participated in the prosecution against him due to the
influence of police and the judge. He said that he “just wanted to speak to her”
so she could tell him herself that she did not want to see him. He told the ther-
apist that he would continue to try to contact the woman until he was allowed
to speak to her in private, and reported violent fantasies in which he would
kidnap the woman to force her to speak to him. He was unperturbed by the
thought of returning to prison. The man was entirely socially isolated, and his
favourite activity was to go for drives in his car by himself, though the treating
team was not aware of where he was going when he left the facility’s grounds.
The treating team knew that he maintained awareness of the victim via the
internet and that he felt happy when he saw the victim’s activities online. He
voiced the intention of joining a sports club of which she was a member so he
could meet her there.
There was considerable concern about what the most appropriate
­diagnosis might be, with thoughts about the relevance of both personality and
pervasive developmental disorder (a psychotic disorder had been excluded and
he had previously been treated with antipsychotic medication with no effect).
Psychological treatment to that point had taken a schema therapy approach to
hypothesised personality disorder, but the clinician was worried that the man
continued to appear “obsessed” with the stalking victim, spent most of his time
ruminating about her, and did not seem to consider his behaviour to be prob-
lematic at all. The clinician had discussed the man’s feelings and thoughts about
the stalking victim and advised that he should write down his thoughts about
her, given they were highly preoccupying. When supervision was sought, the
clinician knew little about the function of the stalking for the client and what
specifically might reinforce it, only that the client perceived that he had a right
to contact the victim due to his feelings for her.
The clinician was clearly invested in helping this man avoid further
­offending and in preventing harm to the victim. They realised that their efforts
to date had had little effect. However, in discussion with them, it was also clear
that they did not have a thorough understanding of why their client was ­stalking,
and the focus of therapy was on clarifying and treating the effects of his mental
disorder rather than changing his behaviour. While there were concerns about
the potential risk to the victim, there were no direct risk management strategies
in place. The man was essentially continuing to stalk from hospital – monitoring
the victim online and potentially in person during his long drives to ­unknown
destinations. While he was engaging in therapy, the treatment provided was
not addressing the functional drivers of the stalking, and the hospital environ-
ment was doing little to actively manage his behaviour or provide incentives
that could motivate him to change.
4 Introduction

We begin with this case example not to criticise the clinician or the
treating team. They were clearly doing their best and were frustrated and
concerned that their best wasn’t having the desired effect. But this case encap-
sulates several issues that we have observed to commonly undermine effective
treatment of stalking behaviour. First, the team had insufficient knowledge
of what stalking is and did not recognise ongoing stalking behaviour when
it was present. Supervision was sought primarily because the client had dis-
closed violent fantasies about the stalking victim, leading to concern for her
safety given his ongoing “obsession.” The fact that he continued to monitor
her behaviour online while hospitalised had not raised any alarm bells. Lack
of stalking awareness meant that there was insufficient monitoring of behav-
iours of concern and not enough attention to actually preventing him from
stalking. Second, the primary focus of formulation and intervention was
mental disorder rather than understanding how (or whether) mental disorder
contributed to stalking and what other treatment needs might be relevant.
It was the stalking that led to the client’s involuntary hospitalisation and
which was associated with the potential for future harm, meaning the stalk-
ing should have been a direct focus of intervention. Despite this, the treating
team had no structured understanding of the meaning of the stalking to the
client, its function and what drove and maintained it, or what might be asso-
ciated with it continuing or escalating to physical violence. The lack of a psy-
chologically informed explanation of the stalking behaviour in turn meant
that the treatment approach was not sufficiently focused on key drivers and
reinforcing factors. While personality dysfunction clearly played an impor-
tant contributing role, schema therapy was unlikely to be effective in address-
ing one of the primary treatment needs: the fact that the client did not see his
behaviour as a problem and had no desire to change.
You may read this case study and identify with the clinician and treating
team, recalling current or past clients whose treatment and management have
presented similar challenges and missed opportunities. Alternatively, you
might have never worked with someone who has stalked, and you are reading
this book in preparation for a future client. In either case, we would like you
to take away four things from this case study that will help you understand
our approach throughout the rest of this book. First, remember that stalking
is a behaviour, not a mental disorder. Treatment should be guided by a com-
prehensive understanding of the individual and situational factors that create
and maintain the stalking, which can then be used to identify ways to change
it. Treating mental disorder is sometimes important to treating stalking, but
often it is not the main focus. Second, to treat someone who stalks, you need
to understand what stalking is and how it presents. Only when stalking is rec-
ognised can effective treatment and risk management be implemented. Third,
make sure you have enough knowledge about stalking to provide competent
treatment. This introductory chapter provides some fundamental information
about stalking that will help prepare you to treat people who stalk but always
 What Is Stalking? 5

seek out up-­to-­date reviews and data. Fourth, and finally, be like this clinician
and reach out for expert help if your treatment is stalled or you are unsure
what to do. Treating people who stalk is not straightforward, and an informed
second opinion is often useful. We hope that this book can provide some
initial insights that make working with this tricky population a little easier.

What Is Stalking?
Given the breadth of behaviour involved in stalking, it is helpful to start
with a clear definition that can be used to identify when treatment might
be required. Stalking is a pattern of behaviour in which one person imposes
themselves into the life of another by making repeated unwanted intrusions
that cause distress or fear. Most stalking behaviour is the stuff of everyday
human ­interaction – telephone calls, text messages, visiting someone’s house.
It is the pattern of conduct, the actor’s intent, and the effect on the target that
make otherwise routine actions problematic. A defining feature of stalking is
a mismatch in the level of contact desired by the two people involved, with
one insisting on more contact than is wanted by the other (Cupach et al., 2000;
White et al., 2000). Stalking is one end of a continuum of unwanted behaviour
involving such mismatched desires. At the least concerning end of the con-
tinuum are overly intrusive one-­off exchanges – an unwanted but relatively
common part of everyday life. In a minority of cases, such events may develop
into short-­lived and self-­limiting periods of harassment (sometimes termed
unwanted pursuit behaviour) that cause discomfort but are not harmful. In
some cases, such harassment crosses the line into a targeted and protracted
stalking campaign, causing distress or fear and potentially causing consider-
able harm to the victim and those around them (Purcell et al., 2004; Thomas
et al., 2008). What demarcates normal – albeit unwanted – behaviour from
stalking differs from case to case depending on the nature of the behaviour,
its persistence and the vulnerabilities of the target(s).
A stalking episode (the time between the first and last unwanted intrusion)
can involve a multitude of different behaviours over days, weeks, months, or
even years. The types of behaviour used by the person are limited only by their
imagination and what they believe will achieve their goals, whether that is to
frighten the victim, to begin or resume a relationship with them, or to obtain
justice or some other outcome. There is no “prototypical” pattern of stalking.
Most people will use multiple methods of communication (telephone calls,
emails, social media, letters, graffiti, etc.) and contact (following, loitering,
accosting, or other means of putting themselves in close physical proximity
to the victim) to make their presence felt. Many will also use other behav-
iours such as sending unsolicited materials (intended as gifts or to frighten),
getting proxies to contact the victim for them, using the internet or electronic
6 Introduction

means to spread damaging misinformation or track the victim, using formal

complaints or legal mechanisms to target the victim, or engaging in property
damage, threats, or physical violence (Dreßing et al., 2020; Purcell et al., 2000;
Spitzberg & Cupach, 2014). The frequency and severity of unwanted intru-
sions will fluctuate over the course of a stalking episode. There will be times
when the victim faces a barrage of unwanted contacts, and then weeks or even
months when there is no contact at all and they think the stalking might have
stopped, only for contact to resume. Regardless of the duration, frequency,
or severity of unwanted intrusions, once they form a pattern of behaviour
that causes the target significant distress or fear, stalking should be consid-
ered present.

Why Is Treatment for Stalking Needed?

Persistent stalking can be highly damaging, both to those targeted and to those
who stalk. It is a crime in much of the industrialised world, and people who
stalk are held to account and punished through the mechanisms of criminal
justice. Yet we know that police and court intervention doesn’t stop stalking –
studies from Australia, Europe, and North America show that around half
of people who have been reported to police, prosecuted, and convicted con-
tinue to stalk their victim, and up to a quarter go on to stalk someone else
(Hehemann et al., 2017; McEwan et al., 2019, 2020; Mohandie et al., 2006;
Rosenfeld, 2003). In these cases, punishment and the hope of deterrence
are simply not effective if the goal is to stop stalking. Responding to stalk-
ing with only criminal justice sanctions will not protect many victims from
ongoing psychological and physical harm, or reduce the impact of stalking
more broadly.
That a purely criminal justice approach fails to stop stalking is unsurprising
if you consider what we know about why people stalk. Stalking arises from
an array of psychological, social, and cultural influences. The psychology that
supports stalking is grounded in the individual’s interpretations of the people
and world around them, their expectations of themselves and others, and the
meanings that they ascribe to events. Stalking behaviour is sustained by long-­
standing patterns of emotional experience and expression, psychological skills
deficits, and environmental cues (Mullen et al., 2009; ­Mullen, James et al., 2009;
Parkhill et al., 2022; Purcell & McEwan, 2019; Rosenfeld et al., 2009). These
are things that do not often change easily, even when someone wants to stop
stalking. For a substantial sub-­group of people who stalk, symptoms of severe
mental illness and their impact on thinking and emotions are also a direct cause
of their stalking behaviour. Without appropriate treatment of these symptoms,
affected individuals are unlikely to be able to desist from stalking. But even
where psychopathology isn’t directly ­implicated in stalking behaviour, the
 Why Is Treatment for Stalking Needed? 7

kinds of psychological factors that contribute to it may not be changed simply

through the imposition of a sentence in court.
If we accept that stalking is a problematic behaviour that emerges from
and is sustained by an array of individual and situational influences, it sug-
gests that interventions designed to change behaviour by changing such
influences might reduce or even stop stalking. This is not a revolutionary
concept. Psychological and social interventions are commonplace for other
problematic behaviours, such as violence, harmful sexual behaviour, and
offending more generally (Craig et al., 2013). A library of articles and books
on these topics has been published over the past four decades, collectively
known as the “what works” or “principles of effective interventions” litera-
ture. Beginning with the work of psychologists in the Canadian correctional
system in the 1980s, this literature provides a fairly clear picture of how to
design and deliver effective psychological interventions to reduce offending
behaviour. Such approaches have a common set of ingredients:

• they are provided to individuals assessed as being at relatively higher risk

of reoffending,
• they target areas of need that are related to the behaviour of concern,
• they are tailored to the individual’s personal characteristics and ability to
engage with treatment,
• they are based on valid psychological theory, and
• they treat people with respect and acknowledge their humanity and
ability to change (Bonta & Andrews, 2016; Polaschek, 2010).
Treatment based on this approach and delivered by appropriately skilled
and knowledgeable practitioners has been repeatedly shown to positively
effect offending behaviour, including specific types of offending such as
sexual offending (Gannon et al., 2019). Although such psychological inter-
ventions are not the only ingredient in helping people to desist from offending
(Polaschek, 2019), they can clearly be an important part of this process.
It is our belief that people who stalk should have the same access to
effective specialist assessment and treatment as those who engage in other
problematic behaviour, whether that is within or external to the criminal jus-
tice system. Unfortunately, this is not currently the case. There are very few
agencies providing specialist stalking assessment or treatment internationally
(see Chan & Sheridan, 2020, and Meloy & Hoffmann, 2021, for examples).
Those that do tend to be isolated and their work has rarely been subject to out-
come evaluation (with the notable exception of Rosenfeld et al., 2009, 2019).
There are no validated psychological treatments specifically designed to
address stalking-­related needs, and, to our knowledge, no major correctional
or probation service offers treatment programmes designed for stalking. This
is somewhat astonishing given stalking is common, with approximately one
in six adults being victimised during their lifetime (McEwan & Pathé, 2014),
8 Introduction

and over 100,000 stalking cases being recorded by police each year in the
United Kingdom alone (Home Office, 2022). Data from the Australian Bureau
of Statistics (ABS) suggest that only about one third of stalking victims
report their experiences to police, which gives some sense of the scope of the
problem (ABS, 2016). There is undoubtedly significant unmet treatment need
within the criminal justice system and outside it. Failing to provide appro-
priate treatment and risk management options for stalking places an entirely
unfair burden on victims who have to try to manage this destructive behav-
iour and whose lives can be laid waste as a result (Korkodeilou, 2017, 2020a;
Logan & Walker, 2021; Pathé & Mullen, 1997). It also condemns those who
persistently stalk to endless pointless interactions with the criminal justice
system, simultaneously destroying their lives and costing the community con-
siderable sums.
It might seem reasonable to assume that existing interventions for general
offending, intimate partner abuse, or even general violence might be appro-
priate for people who stalk, meaning specific treatment approaches are not
required. Indeed, physical or sexual violence is relatively common in stalking
episodes (present in 20–50% of cases; McEwan, 2021). While it is possible that
these individuals would benefit from programmes designed to reduce these
behaviours, this does not take into account the remaining majority of people
who stalk but do not engage in physical or sexual violence and may be at
risk of further stalking. Such programmes also fail to address the targeted
and persistent nature of stalking behaviour, which can be severely damaging
regardless of the presence of physical violence (Kamphuis et al., 2003). Simi-
larly, general offending programmes would likely have some relevance for the
substantial proportion for whom stalking is part of a wider pattern of offend-
ing and antisocial behaviour (Eke et al., 2011; McEwan et al., 2017, 2020).
However, such programmes do not address the targeted nature of stalking or
the fixated mindsets that seem to contribute to its persistence. Additionally,
such programmes would not be suitable for those without a wider pattern
of offending behaviour. Finally, though just under half of stalking emerges
out of the breakdown of an intimate relationship (Logan, 2020; Cupach &
Spitzberg, 2004), most existing programmes for intimate partner abuse have
been shown to have minimal effect in reducing the behaviour (Eckhardt
et al., 2013; Gondolf, 2004; Travers et al., 2021). Moreover, while stalking and
intimate partner abuse are clearly related in some cases, whether the two pat-
terns of behaviour share similar treatment needs more generally is unclear.
What little research that exists suggests that most people who abuse intimate
partners do not go on to stalk post-­relationship, while a subset of ex-­intimate
stalking cases emerge from relationships that are not characterised by abuse
(Edwards & Gidycz, 2014; Ferreira & Matos, 2013; Senkans et al., 2020).
Lack of attention to the unique aspects of stalking in existing treatment
approaches means that there have been calls for stalking-­specific interven-
tions for over 20 years (Kamphuis & Emmelkamp, 2000; Mullen et al., 2001a).
 Key Facts About Stalking 9

Unfortunately, they have not led to a body of research that can easily
inform psychological treatment. The stalking research literature has largely
focused on epidemiology and risk assessment, with far less attention to the
psychological mechanisms and contextual cues that contribute to stalk-
ing (Parkhill et al., 2022). The treatment literature at present consists of
opinion pieces by clinicians (including the authors of this book) who pro-
vide general guidance and principles for treatment based on their experience
with people who stalk (e.g., Kropp et al., 2002; MacKenzie & James, 2011;
Mullen et al., 2001a, 2001b; Purcell & McEwan, 2019; Rosenfeld, 2000; Rosen-
feld et al., 2009; Siepelmeyer & Ortiz-­Müller, 2020). There remains only
one peer-­reviewed evaluation of a stalking treatment approach, in which
dialectical behaviour therapy was trialled with some limited effect (Rosenfeld
et al., 2009, 2019). This means that practitioners who provide treatment to
people who stalk are largely working without an integrated evidence base,
drawing on their knowledge of the stalking literature where possible, but fre-
quently generalising from work with other problematic behaviour and having
to reinvent the wheel when treating stalking.
In this context, our intention in writing this book is twofold. First, we
want to provide detailed guidance to practitioners so they can more easily
work with clients in ways that help stop stalking. Between us we have over
50 years of experience directly assessing and treating stalking behaviour and
conducting research with this population. We thought it would be useful to
distil this knowledge, and that gleaned from our colleagues, into consensus-­
based, detailed, and practical guidance for assessing and treating stalking.
Second, and equally importantly, we hope that the publication of this book
might trigger renewed research interest in the psychological treatment of
people who stalk. We particularly want to highlight where further research is
needed to build an evidence base that can inform the development of future
treatment approaches.

Key Facts About Stalking

While stalking behaviour has existed for centuries, the construction of stalking
as a social problem and a crime is relatively new (Mullen et al., 2000, 2001b).
The modern concept of stalking emerged in social discourse in the English-­
speaking world in the late 1980s, gradually attracting community, media,
and eventually political attention that led to its criminalisation (Mullen
et al., 2001a, 2001b; 2009; Mullen, James et al., 2009). As anti-­stalking laws
were introduced across industrialised, liberal democracies, stalking began
to attract attention from epidemiologists charged with quantifying this new
type of crime, and mental health practitioners and support services who
were suddenly confronted with victims and stalkers in clinical and forensic
10 Introduction

s­ ettings. Legal, sociological, and criminal justice research followed and there
is now a sizeable research literature encompassing different philosophical
and scientific perspectives on stalking. The majority of that research comes
from North America, Western Europe, and Australia, though that is gradu-
ally changing (Chan & Sheridan, 2020). This body of research means that we
are now able to describe with some certainty the characteristics of those who
stalk, their victims, and common features of stalking behaviour.
Stalking victimisation is common, with 15–20% of women and 5–10% of
men in Western industrialised nations reporting victimisation during their
adult lives (ABS, 2016; McEwan & Pathé, 2014). The majority (60–80%) of
­victims are women, and 70–80% of perpetrators are men (Cupach & Spitzberg,
2004), with same-­gender stalking accounting for 15–20% of reported cases
and more commonly involving all-­male dyads (Strand & McEwan, 2011).
In forensic settings, these figures are skewed, with approximately 90% of
­people who stalk being male and 90% of victims female (McEwan et al., 2017;
Nijdam-­Jones et al., 2018). Most women who are stalked will be stalked by
men, whereas men are equally likely to be stalked by a man or a woman (Sher-
idan, North et al., 2014).
Both people who stalk and those who are targeted have an average age in
the mid-­30s, though stalking victimisation and perpetration occurs across the
lifespan (Sheridan, North et al., 2014; Sheridan, Scott et al., 2014). The hand-
ful of studies on stalking among adolescents suggests a similar phenomenon,
though adolescents appear to be somewhat less persistent, but potentially more
overtly aggressive, than their adult counterparts (Borges & Dell’Aglio, 2019;
Cloonan-­Thomas et al., 2022; Fisher et al., 2014; Purcell et al., 2009; Sheridan
et al., 2014a, 2014b).
Approximately one-­third of adult stalking victims are physically assaulted
during the stalking episode, with rates being higher among former intimates
and lower among stranger and acquaintance victims (Logan, 2020). In a very
small proportion of stalking cases such violence is seriously harmful or even
lethal (James & Farnham, 2003; McEwan, 2021; Sheridan & Roberts, 2011).
Yet stalking is harmful even in the absence of physical violence. Some stalk-
ing victims have described the experience as “psychological terrorism” and
“psychological rape” (Mullen & Pathé, 2002). Victimisation is associated
with post-­traumatic stress symptomatology, depression, substance misuse,
and reduced employment and education performance (Hall, 1998; Johnson
& Kercher, 2009; Kamphuis et al., 2003; Logan, 2020; Pathé & Mullen, 1997;
Thomas et al., 2008). More prolonged stalking has been associated with
greater psychological impact on victims, regardless of the presence of overt
aggression (Blaauw et al., 2002; Diette et al., 2014; Dreßing et al., 2020; Purcell
et al., 2005). Spitzberg & Cupach’s (2014) meta-­analysis of 41 studies suggests
an average stalking duration of approximately 15 months, though with sub-
stantial variation between studies. However, as Spitzberg and Cupach point
out, it is not the duration per se that causes the most harm from stalking but
 Explaining Stalking 11

the “cumulativeness” of the behaviour – it is the combination of frequent and

unpredictable intrusions over a sustained period that appears to be traumatis-
ing for many victims.
Former intimate partners are responsible for just under half of all stalk-
ing episodes; approximately, one-­third are perpetrated by people who are prior
acquaintances of the victim (e.g., work colleagues, neighbours), and roughly
one in five people who stalk are complete strangers to the victim (Spitzberg &
Cupach, 2014). A wide range of motivations are reported by people who stalk,
including the desire for reconciliation or revenge following the breakdown of
a relationship, the desire to establish or enact a relationship with the object of
their affection, the desire to express grievance following perceived mistreat-
ment, or to obtain sexual gratification and potentially prepare for a sexual
attack (Mullen et al., 2000, 2009; Mullen, James et al., 2009). While most people
who stalk persistently target a single victim in a particular context, potentially
as many as 20% of people go on to target multiple different victims in different
stalking episodes over time (sometimes referred to as “serial stalking”; Coup-
land & Storey, in press; Hehemann et al., 2017; McEwan et al., 2018).
A large number of those who stalk have mental disorders, with preva-
lence rates in clinical/forensic samples of at least 50% and possibly as high
as 70% (McEwan & Strand, 2013; Nijdam-­Jones et al., 2018), though this may
be similar to rates in other offender groups (Wheatley et al., 2020). Person-
ality, mood, substance use, and psychotic disorders are most common, with
autism spectrum disorders and intellectual disability also reported in smaller
numbers. As Albrecht et al. (2022) describe, there are several hypothesised
pathways linking mental disorder and stalking. The most direct concerns the
role of delusional beliefs about the stalking victim, which clearly drive stalk-
ing behaviour in a sub-­group of cases. More common is an indirect link, with
the symptoms of mood, personality, substance use, or other disorders con-
tributing to stalking through their impact on thinking and emotions, but not
directly causing stalking behaviour.

Explaining Stalking
The heterogeneity of stalking behaviour and people who stalk has led multiple
authors to develop descriptive typologies attempting to reduce complexity,
facilitate communication, and guide responses (see McEwan & Davis, 2020
and Spitzberg & Cupach, 2007 for review). The main stalking typologies that
are used in practice have several similarities, most obviously distinguishing
between those who stalk former intimate partners and those with other prior
relationships with the victim. More complex typologies also incorporate some
evaluation of the person’s apparent motivation and the presence and nature
of psychopathology associated with the stalking (McEwan & Davis, 2020).
12 Introduction

Stalking typologies are useful when they are used as a heuristic to help inform
hypotheses about what might be contributing to the stalking and when they
can help guide immediate management actions. However, they are only a way
of organising information to guide initial thoughts. In a treatment context,
the application of a typology is not a substitute for a full assessment and for-
mulation of the individual’s behaviour (see Chapter 2 for further discussion
of the use of typologies when assessing stalking).
Unfortunately, there is no simple answer to the question of what leads
some people to stalk while most others do not. Stalkers’ pursuit can cost
them their friends and family, their job, their health, and in some cases, their
freedom. Yet they persist, persevering for months or years, intentionally or
inadvertently destroying the lives of their victims, and often their own. There
have been attempts to adapt existing theories of relationships and behaviour
to stalking, including applications of attachment theory, behavioural theory,
social learning theory, and social information processing theory. All of these
approaches have explanatory strength and some empirical support, but some
significant explanatory gaps remain (see Parkhill et al., 2022 for review). There
is only one truly novel theory of stalking, Spitzberg and Cupach’s Relational
Goal Pursuit Theory (Cupach et al., 2000; Cupach & Spitzberg, 2004, 2014).
This theory has considerable explanatory potential and has been tested in sev-
eral studies, but at present remains limited to explaining stalking in the con-
text of relationship pursuit. Developing a comprehensive theory of stalking
is difficult because of the heterogeneity of those who stalk, and the fact that
a wide variety of situational and individual factors contribute to it. However,
the lack of a compelling and comprehensive psychological explanation for
stalking may be one reason that the research literature is yet to thoroughly
investigate psychological factors that could be the focus of treatment (Birch
et al., 2018; Parkhill et al., 2022).

Laws Prohibiting Stalking

Given the importance of anti-­stalking laws to the contexts in which specialist
assessment and treatment services are provided, this section introduces how
such laws are typically structured and gives an overview of research about
how they are (and are not) used. The first modern stalking law was intro-
duced in California in 1990, and laws around most of the Anglophone world,
much of Europe, and parts of Africa and Asia followed throughout the 1990s
and 2000s (though not without controversy; Dennison & Thomson, 2005; Van
der Aa, 2018; Wells, 1997). The rapid proliferation of anti-­stalking laws in the
absence of a single accepted social definition of stalking means that there is
considerable variation between jurisdictions in how stalking is legally defined
(McAnaney et al., 1993). Some laws have since been subject to legal challenge,
 The Use of Anti-­stalking Laws 13

while others have been amended after criticisms that they did not in fact
­prevent stalking (Harris, 2000; Mullen et al., 2009; Mullen, James et al., 2009).
Stalking is difficult to legislate against because it usually involves behav-
iours that would be, in other circumstances, completely innocuous. Although
some stalkers are overtly threatening or violent, many of the acts that consti-
tute stalking are part of everyday interactions: telephone calls, emails, social
media contacts, sending gifts, waiting for someone at their home or work,
etc. It is their unwanted imposition and repetition over time that creates a
sense of menace. As noted by McEwan et al. (2007), stalking is qualitatively
different from, for example, the legitimate pursuit of a complaint or accept-
able attempts to reconcile a failed relationship, but it has proven difficult for
legislators to specify where such legitimate pursuit ends and when criminal
sanctions are warranted (see also Ogilvie, 2000).
While different jurisdictions have taken different approaches to defining
stalking there are some commonalities across anti-­stalking laws. They typi-
cally involve at least two, potentially three, elements: (a) defining the pattern
and nature of the unwanted behaviour (the conduct element), (b) defining the
intent of the perpetrator (the mental element), and often, though not always,
(c) some requirement for a negative impact on the target of the stalking (the
impact element; Fox et al., 2011; McEwan et al., 2007). Different jurisdictions
have defined these three elements in different ways and with different levels
of specificity, which can have real impacts on how laws are used and who can
access them. Some jurisdictions also limit definitions of stalking to behaviour
that occurs between intimate or former intimate partners, or simply outlaw
“stalking” as a form of domestic violence without any further definition. We
encourage readers to find their local anti-­stalking statute, consider how the
three elements are operationalised, and how this might impact the use of the
law in their jurisdiction.

The Use of Anti-­stalking Laws

A growing body of research has shown that where stalking laws exist, they
are not necessarily used to their greatest effect (Brady & Nobles, 2017;
­Hehemann et al., 2017; Van der Aa & Groenen, 2011). Epidemiological
­samples of stalking victims suggest that between one-­third and half report
the experience to police (ABS, 2016; Baum et al., 2009; Purcell et al., 2001;
Tjaden & Thoennes, 1998). When asked why they did not report to police,
many victims either think that it did not warrant police attention or believe
that the police will not take their complaints seriously (Fremouw et al., 1997;
Laurinaitytė et al., 2022; Tjaden & Thoennes, 1998). Other research ­suggests
that these doubts about police responses may be justified, with multiple
studies observing that police are slow to respond to stalking and often
14 Introduction

ineffectual in ­stopping it (Brewster, 2001; Korkodeilou, 2016; Pathé &

Mullen, 1997; ­Taylor-­Dunn et al., 2021). The relative lack of police response
to stalking may also be reflected in findings that the number of stalking
reports recorded by police is far smaller than might be expected, given the
prevalence of the behaviour (Bouffard et al., 2021; Brady & Nobles, 2017).
Several authors have suggested reasons for inadequate police responses to
stalking. First, many stalking victims do not identify their experience as stalk-
ing when reporting it to police. Most experience dozens of unwanted intru-
sions before seeking help and often report only the most recent behaviours that
have caused them to become more concerned (Korkodeilou, 2020b; Roberts &
Dziegielewski, 1996; Taylor-­Dunn et al., 2021). They may report troubling tele-
phone calls or an assault but do not recognise or think to label the broader
pattern behaviour as stalking (McEwan, 2021). This means that recognising
stalking relies on police awareness and willingness to proactively ask ques-
tions to identify it. This in turn does not occur because many police do not
have any specialist knowledge about stalking, and if there is no immediate
crime reported, they do not think to ask additional questions that could allow
them to identify stalking (Brandt & Voerman, 2020). Even when they do ask,
most stalking statutes are very broad, leaving much room for police discretion
about what constitutes a “pattern” of behaviour or “reasonable fear” (Brandt &
Voerman, 2020; Spitzberg, 2002). Studies have demonstrated that police with
less experience in stalking view it as less serious and warranting less response
(Lynch & Logan, 2015; Scott et al., 2013), potentially affecting discretionary
decisions about whether it has occurred. This is consistent with observations
from qualitative research with stalking victims by Taylor-­Dunn et al. (2021)
and Korkodeilou (2020b), whose participants reported being told that there
was nothing the police could do until a “real” crime (i.e., a threat or physical
violence) occurred. It is also consistent with studies of police actions in
response to stalking reports, which show that police are more likely to respond
to stalking if there is physical violence present (Ngo, 2019). Both Brandt and
Voerman (2020) and Spitzberg (2002) suggest that a key factor in inadequate
police responses to stalking is the failure to recognise the behaviour at the ear-
liest opportunity. While it has not attracted the same kind of research attention
or critique, failure to recognise stalking is also a key problem when considering
whether and when stalking treatment might be required.

Recognising Stalking
The first step in offering treatment for stalking is knowing who might require
it. Stalking does not always present clearly, and assessors need to be alert to its
presence where it is not labelled. It is typical for people who stalk to be pros-
ecuted using a collection of discrete offences (e.g., a threat, an assault, breach
 Recognising Stalking 15

of a restraining order) rather than a stalking charge (Brandt & Voerman, 2020;
Lynch & Logan, 2015; Sentencing Advisory Council, 2022; Spitzberg, 2002).
This renders stalking invisible in correctional or forensic systems that fre-
quently rely on the nature of the charge to identify potential assessment and
treatment needs (e.g., those with sexual offences are assessed for sex offender
programmes). An example of this from our own practice is a client who was
serving a probation order for a threat conviction and was referred for risk
assessment and management recommendations. On reviewing the collat-
eral information and speaking to the probation officer, it was clear that the
threat took place in the context of an ongoing pattern of unwanted intrusions
that included following the ex-­partner, turning up at her home, and making
dozens of non-­threatening telephone calls. At no point in the police or court
process was the pattern of the behaviour described as stalking. Thankfully,
the probation officer was alert to the potential and had identified stalking
from the description in the police summary of charges.
It is essential to be aware that stalking may be present whenever these
kinds of behaviours or offences are present. Always ask questions about the
context in which discrete acts of offending or concerning conduct took place
so patterns of stalking are identified. The questions in Box 1 are a useful
starting point when trying to identify whether stalking is present and whether
the approach outlined in this book is likely to be helpful.

BOX 1 Key Questions That Can Be Used to Identify

the Presence of Stalking
1. Are intrusive behaviours targeting a particular person or group of people? For
stalking to be present, there must be repeated unwanted intrusions involv-
ing the same target(s). If the behaviour is accidentally targeting the same
person but that is not the offender’s intent, it is probably not helpful to
conceptualise the behaviour as stalking.
2. Does the target of the behaviour want to have contact with the person? Stalk-
ing involves unwanted intrusions. If there is evidence that the target(s)
wants to have contact with the person, then consider other ways of concep-
tualising any concerning behaviour.
3. Are there legitimate reasons for the person to have contact with the target(s)?
Stalking involves unwanted intrusions that have no legitimate justification.
Either there are no legitimate reasons for contact with the target(s) or the
person’s behaviour goes beyond the boundaries of what is legitimate in the
circumstances. For example, one of our clients repeatedly contacted his ex-­
partner demanding to see his children, in violation of a restraining order.

(continued)
16 Introduction

BOX 1 Key Questions That Can Be Used to Identify

the Presence of Stalking (continued)
The restraining order meant that these contacts were not legitimate even
though the desire to see his children was understandable. Legitimate contact
in this case would involve a lawyer or use of the court or a mediation service
to negotiate access to the children while observing the requirements of the
restraining order.
4. Does the pattern of intrusive behaviour cause fear or distress? Stalking is
present when the cumulative nature of the pattern of behaviour has a
significant negative psychological impact on the target(s). If the victim is
completely unaware of the unwanted intrusions but all other criteria are
satisfied, it may be appropriate to consider whether a reasonable person
would be fearful if they became aware of the unwanted intrusions. For
example, a sexually motivated client stalked a woman who was a stranger
to him over a period of five weeks by loitering near her home, watching
her through the window, breaking into her home, and moving and steal-
ing her belongings. The woman was not aware until police told her of the
pattern of behaviour after the man’s arrest. The stalking was considered
present throughout the five weeks, even though the target did not become
fearful until after she was made aware of the behaviour.

While the failure to name stalking when it is present is the most common
challenge to recognition, the opposite problem can also arise – when stalking
charges are used but the behaviour is not consistent with common social or
research definitions of stalking. In these kinds of cases, proceeding based on
the assumption that the problem behaviour is stalking may result in inad-
equate assessment and failure to identify necessary treatment targets. For
example, a client presents with a stalking charge, but the behaviour involved
a single incident in which he followed a woman down a street for some dis-
tance, and she was sufficiently fearful that she reported it to police. While
potentially consistent with some legal definitions of stalking, this behaviour
does not have the necessary repetition to be considered stalking for the pur-
poses of assessment or treatment (it may of course be concerning for other
reasons, depending on the context). Similarly, we have seen stalking charges
used to prosecute voyeurs or exhibitionists who return to the same location
(e.g., a train station or a school) and so inadvertently offend repeatedly against
the same individual. While a pattern of intentionally targeted behaviour must
be ruled out, in our experience it is more commonly coincidence that the
same victim was in the same location each time in these cases. This behav-
iour would be better conceptualised as harmful sexual behaviour and assessed
using approaches appropriate to that.
 Recognising Stalking 17

A similar issue might arise if a stalking charge is used to prosecute someone for
behaviour that occurs during a continuing intimate relationship. For example,
the offender and victim continue to live together, but the offender is engaging
in surveillance and monitoring of their partner’s behaviour, along with other
psychologically or physically abusive behaviour. In this context, our approach
to stalking assessment and treatment would be inappropriate as we define
stalking as an unwanted imposition, implying the absence of a consensual
relationship between the two people involved. If there is an ongoing relation-
ship, then it may be more useful to conceptualise the pattern of behaviour as
intimate partner abuse (or even coercive control; Robinson & Myhill, 2021)
and proceed with the assessment and risk management plan on that basis.
Similarly, if there is an intimate relationship that is “on and off,” with stalk-
ing during periods of relationship breakdown and abuse during periods in
which the relationship has reformed, then it is usually most helpful to con-
ceptualise the behaviour as a pattern of intimate partner abuse but to consider
risks potentially associated with periods of stalking (e.g., the risk of physical
violence may be heightened post-­separation) (see McEwan & Underwood, in
press for further discussion of these issues).
A final area where questions may arise about whether a pattern of behav-
iour constitutes stalking is when the unwanted intrusions occur entirely
online. In the past 15 years, it has become relatively common for people
who stalk to use the internet to monitor, harass, or obtain information about
their victims (Cavezza & McEwan, 2014). This is sometimes called “cyber-
stalking,” though, as Wilson et al. (2022) point out, the term cyberstalking is
so poorly defined that the research literature on this construct is difficult to
integrate and generalise. Regardless of what it is called, it is clear that those
who stalk offline routinely also use online methods of intrusion. Dreßing
and colleagues’ (2020) comprehensive epidemiological survey of stalking in
Mannheim, Germany, identified that a quarter of stalking victims were con-
tacted via the internet, while nearly 20% had false information about them
placed online. Over 15% received emails from the person stalking them, triple
the proportion reporting emails in the same survey 15 years prior (Dressing
et al., 2005). Of course, this self-­report survey could not identify how often
the internet may have been used by the stalker to monitor or gain information
without the victim being aware, so these are likely underestimates of the true
use of online behaviour by people who stalk. Given how pervasive technology
and the internet are in modern life, it should be assumed that people who
stalk offline will also use the internet to target their victims until there is evi-
dence otherwise.
Conceptualising online behaviour as stalking is relatively straightforward
when there are also unwanted intrusions occurring offline. However, if the
stalking takes place purely online, additional questions might arise. In our
experience, purely online stalking episodes are usually motivated by desire
to start a relationship or have sexual contact with the target, or desire to
18 Introduction

remonstrate with or punish the target(s) for a perceived wrong (an exception
is if the victim is a public figure, where other motivations are also common,
see James et al., 2009). Our approach is to start with the definition of stalking
that was provided at the beginning of this chapter. If there is evidence of a
pattern of repeated, unwanted intrusions upon another person that has the
effect of causing distress or fear, then it is potentially useful to think about
this behaviour as stalking. However, other forms of online harassment such
as trolling and cyberbullying often involve very similar behaviours to online
stalking motivated by a personal grievance. Trolling captures a wide range of
online behaviours that are variously antagonistic, deceptive, or involve vigi-
lantism (Demsar et al., 2021). The common underlying mechanism of troll-
ing is that it is intended to provoke a response from those targeted (Demsar
et al., 2021). Cyberbullying is a targeted, repeated behaviour that is intended
to cause harm and in which a power imbalance between the perpetrator and
target means the target is unable to defend themselves (Slonje et al., 2013).
Both behaviours may look very similar to grievance-­based or resentful stalk-
ing. The key difference is that this kind of stalking is triggered by perceived
mistreatment or a personal wrong – the behaviour is motivated by personal
grievance rather than some other cause. Trolling and cyberbullying do not
seem to involve this sense of personal grievance.
Occasionally, someone who has engaged in egregious forms of trolling
or cyberbullying may be charged with stalking. Therefore, if stalking has
occurred purely online it will be necessary to determine whether there is a
personalised grievance against the target that is driving the persistent and
unwanted intrusions. If there is, the behaviour can likely be usefully concep-
tualised as resentful, or grievance-­based, stalking and the approach in this
book may be useful. However, if there is no personalised grievance, then
assessment and treatment should proceed more cautiously and with reference
to wider literature on online harassing behaviour. The approaches described
in this book may be useful, but there may be other motivations, goals, and
skills that need to be identified in assessment and addressed in treatment.

Biases Influencing This Book

We should make clear at the outset of the book that all three authors were
born, educated, and work in countries that share considerable cultural similar-
ities and have been described as WEIRD in psychological literature (Western,
Educated, Industrialised, Rich and Democratic; Muthukrishna et al., 2020).
The cultural context of our lives in Australia, the United States, and the
United Kingdom, respectively, informs both our thinking about stalking and
the responses that we describe in this book. Stalking is a culturally bound
construct that emerged in WEIRD countries in the 1990s and has spread to
 Overview of This Book 19

some other countries and cultures in the years since, though it is by no means
universally accepted (Mullen et al., 2001b). Indeed what “stalking” means in
different cultures may be quite different (Sheridan et al., 2017). This is not to
say that stalking does not occur outside of WEIRD cultures; ­multiple studies
have demonstrated that stalking behaviour is reported in a wide variety of
cultures, from the Caribbean to Asia, and parts of Africa and the Middle East
(Sheridan et al., 2019). Nonetheless, the way that we talk about stalking in
this book is culturally bound, both by our personal perspectives and by our
practical knowledge of how service systems function. We strongly hope that
the information in this book is helpful to thinking and practice for those who
work in dissimilar cultures to our own, or who routinely work with clients
from cultural minorities within WEIRD societies. However, we expect that
our approaches and assumptions may need to be challenged and adapted
when working with clients and service systems in different cultural settings.
In addition to our cultural biases, all three authors are psychologists, and
our book presents a psychological approach to understanding stalking and
treating stalking behaviour. Our emphasis is on helping clients to become
aware of patterns of thinking and emotional experience that contribute to
stalking and helping them to change those patterns in ways that help change
their behaviour. Our goal is to equip our clients with both the skills and moti-
vation to build a life that does not involve stalking and supporting any changes
to identity and self-­appraisal that may be required to achieve that.
That said, we strongly believe that psychological treatment is only one
part of effective intervention for stalking. Equally important (and in some
cases more important) are mental health treatment, supporting practical
needs with housing and employment, and building social networks. In many
cases, supervision and legal constraints on the person’s behaviour are also
an essential element of intervention (MacKenzie & James, 2011). So, while
this book is heavily focused on the detail of psychological treatment, we urge
readers to think broadly about the needs of their clients, and what other areas
of treatment need and support are required to help them (re)build a mean-
ingful life without stalking.

Overview of This Book

The book is divided into four parts. Part 1 provides a rationale for our approach
to psychological treatment of people who stalk, describes the overall approach,
and lays out 10 key principles that underpin the detail provided in the follow-
ing sections. Part 2 focuses on the initial assessment and formulation with a
client who has engaged in stalking behaviour. Within Part 2, Chapter 2 pro-
vides detailed guidance about essential information to gather during a stalk-
ing assessment and suggestions for interview approaches to obtain it. Chapter 3
20 Introduction

focuses on risk assessment, discussing the nature of risk in stalking cases and
providing an overview of available structured approaches, their supporting evi-
dence, and advice about using the most appropriate risk assessment instrument.
Chapter 4 then focuses on developing a meaningful cognitive-­behavioural
formulation of the stalking that can be used to guide treatment. This chapter
makes suggestions about how to discuss the formulation with the client, linking
it to their own goals and understanding of the behaviour.
Part 3 addresses the core tasks of psychological treatment with people who
stalk. Chapter 5 outlines steps for selecting and prioritising treatment targets
and discusses common areas of treatment need and strategies to address them,
based on our work with clients. Each area is described in depth and practical
strategies for helping clients to change their thinking, respond effectively to
their emotions, and change their behaviour are provided. Chapter 6 discusses
the structure of treatment, from clarifying expectations, engaging clients, and
gaining commitment to work towards collaborative treatment goals in the
early stages, to session structure and planning for termination. Where Chap-
ters 5 and 6 focus on the therapeutic tasks of treatment, Chapter 7 covers
how an awareness of risk must be integrated throughout different stages of
treatment, and how to respond to increases in risk of violence or further stalk-
ing that will occur during most treatment relationships. Chapter 8 is the final
practice-­focused chapter and moves beyond the immediate relationship with
the treatment client to consider the importance of multi-­agency collaboration
when working with people who stalk. A framework for effective multi-­agency
work with stalking is presented, along with discussion of how to deal with
common challenges of multi-­agency work in different contexts.
The fourth and final Part of the book is contained in Chapter 9. In addition
to drawing together the key themes, Chapter 9 discusses shortcomings in the
existing evidence base that cause this book to be “consensus-­based” rather
than “evidence-­based” in its approach. Drawing on the ideas that underpin
our approach to assessment and treatment of people who stalk, Chapter 9
presents recommendations for future research to develop an evidence base
that can inform the development of future stalking treatments.

Conclusion
Stalking is a common and problematic behaviour that can cause severe harm
to those who are targeted and lay waste to the life of the person who stalks.
While stalking is increasingly coming to the attention of criminal justice
agencies, evidence indicates that criminal justice responses alone fail to stop
stalking in up to half of cases, while approximately one in five go on to stalk
someone else. This suggests that there is a need for more complex and nuanced
responses to stalking behaviour, including treatment designed to change the
 References 21

psychological factors that are thought to sustain it. Unfortunately, there is very
limited research to inform the design of treatment approaches for stalking, and
only one treatment trial has been conducted to date, with limited effect.
This book is our response to the dearth of information about how to
treat stalking. It is an attempt to distil knowledge gleaned from colleagues
and from our years of psychological practice and research with people who
stalk, into a principled and detailed approach to treatment. Throughout this
book, we use case examples to communicate key ideas and points. These cases
are based on our combined clinical experience, and information has been
altered to protect the identities of those involved. We hope that the advice
and examples that we provide in these pages can not only give practitioners
accessible and useful guidance but also create impetus for more research into
stalking to inform the development and evaluation of future evidence-­based
psychological treatments.

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attraction to obsession and stalking (2nd ed.). Routledge. doi:10.4324/9780203805916
Strand, S., & McEwan, T. E. (2011). Same-­gender stalking in Sweden and Australia.
Behavioral Sciences & the Law, 29(2), 202–219. doi:10.1002/bsl.981
Taylor-­Dunn, H., Bowen, E., & Gilchrist, E. A. (2021). Reporting harassment and
stalking to the police: A qualitative study of victims’ experiences. Journal of Inter-
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Thomas, S. D. M., Purcell, R., Pathé, M., & Mullen, P. E. (2008). Harm asso-
ciated with stalking victimization. Australasian Psychiatry: Bulletin of the
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Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists, 42(9), 800–806.

doi:10.1080/00048670802277230
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 PART 1
A Rationale for
Stalking Treatment

29
CHAPTER 1
Key Components
and Principles of
Stalking Treatment

O
ur approach to treating stalking is individualised, based on a cognitive-­
behavioural formulation derived from a detailed assessment. There is
no session-­by-­session manual, and the targets for treatment and the
approaches used to try to effect change will differ to some degree from client
to client. That said, our approach does rest on a consistent theory of change; it
has a specified sequence, and there are core principles that should be adhered
to when treating with the aim of reducing stalking behaviour. This chapter
outlines these key features of the approach that are then described in detail in
the remainder of the book.
It is important to be aware that there is virtually no research on
whether, or which, psychological treatments are effective in changing stalk-
ing behaviour. Therefore, the method outlined in this chapter is informed
by our knowledge from working for many years with people who stalk,
synthesising our practice-­based experience with the results of research
and evidence of what works when treating other kinds of harmful and
­potentially criminal behaviour. We are therefore outlining a “consensus-­
based” approach to treatment rather than an “evidence-­based” approach.
Essentially, this chapter details what we think has the greatest chance
of success given our own experience and what can be extrapolated from
research at the time of writing.

Treating Stalking: A Practical Guide for Clinicians, First Edition. Troy McEwan,
Michele Galietta and Alan Underwood.
© 2024 John Wiley & Sons Ltd. Published 2024 by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.
Companion website: www.wiley.com/go/McEwan/APracticalGuideforClinicians

31
32 C H A PT E R 1 Key Components and Principles of Stalking Treatment

Who to Treat?
Reflecting on the substantial literature on “what works” in offender reha-
bilitation (Bonta & Andrews, 2016), we advise that treatment for stalking
behaviour should be offered to those who are assessed as being at relatively
increased risk of future stalking. This means undertaking a risk assessment
that can help prioritise a stalking client for treatment, as discussed in depth in
Chapter 3. It is important to be clear that it is the assessed risk of stalking that
should inform decisions about need for stalking treatment, not the risk of vio-
lence, or sexual offending, or other offending. It is possible that a client may
be assessed as being very likely to continue to stalk the victim, but they are
considered low risk of physical violence, either during the stalking episode
or outside of it. This client would be suitable for stalking treatment, but the
focus of the treatment would not include needs related to their potential for
physical violence. Conversely, a client assessed as being at relatively increased
risk of harmful sexual behaviour, but lower relative risk of stalking would
be referred for treatment of the former rather than the latter. Where there is
thought to be increased risk of multiple problematic behaviours with differ-
ent functions involving different victims, then formulation-­driven treatment
of each behaviour is indicated. There will likely be substantial overlap in the
targets of such treatment given the core criminogenic needs common to many
kinds of offending behaviour (Bonta & Andrews, 2016). However, there will
likely be unique needs relevant to stalking or other problematic behaviour
that become apparent through the process of formulation.

What to Treat?
Almost all psychological treatments intended to reduce offending attempt to
change personal characteristics that are thought to be functionally related
to the behaviour of interest (Day et al., 2006). However, determining what
characteristics might be relevant to stalking is challenging, as there is little
research guidance from which to extrapolate (Parkhill et al., 2022). Usu-
ally, clinicians would turn to risk assessment guidelines and theoretical
frameworks to help them understand an individual’s presentation through
the lens of what is known about psychological variables that contribute to
the behaviour of interest (Gannon & Pina, 2010; Gannon et al., 2008; John-
stone & Logan, 2013; Sturmey, 2010). These sources inform their formula-
tion about what might be relevant in the individual case, which would then
translate into a treatment plan (Logan, 2017). However, the two structured
professional judgement guidelines for stalking pre-­date most of the research
on stalking risk and have been subject to very limited validation, meaning it
 What to Treat? 33

is unclear whether the risk factors in those guidelines should be considered

sound ­indicators of treatment need. There is also a question about whether
risk factors as operationalised in risk assessment tools and guides cause an
outcome of interest or are simply correlates. If they are only correlates, chang-
ing a risk factor through intervention would not necessarily produce change
in the outcome (Spivak & Shepherd, 2020).
Beyond risk assessment, limitations in explanatory scope and depth and in
the evidence underpinning existing stalking theories mean that none are at a
sufficient stage of development that they can be used to guide treatment without
considerable adaptation (Parkhill et al., 2022). While there is not yet a robust
theory that can provide a detailed guide for formulating and treating stalking,
there are some consistent features across stalking theories that have been pro-
posed. This suggests potential areas of psychological functioning that may be
relevant to continued stalking behaviour. In their review of stalking theory,
Parkhill et al. (2022) identified the following constructs or factors that were
hypothesised as being relevant to stalking behaviour across multiple theories:

• Stalking can be understood as a goal-­directed behaviour; that is, it has

a function even if that function is not always immediately apparent to
those outside of the situation.
• Stalking occurs in the context of persistent intense affective and emo-
tional arousal.
• Self-­ and emotional-­regulation capacity and how the individual copes
with intense affect is thought to be relevant to stalking.
• Ruminative thinking (either arising from goal frustration or as an emo-
tion regulation strategy) is common in people who stalk.
• Stalking arises in situations that are relevant to the person’s sense of self
or self-­worth, meaning self and relationship cognition (i.e., personality)
must be relevant vulnerability factors.
• Offence-­supportive cognition is likely to be relevant (though the content
of such cognition has been poorly described in extant theory).

At the time of writing, this list is the best approximation of theoreti-

cally informed guidance about what to treat when trying to manage or stop
stalking behaviour. Interestingly, the outcomes of Parkhill et al.’s (2022)
theory knitting approach are highly consistent with our observations from
­practice with people who stalk. Emotion regulation, stalking-­supportive cog-
nition, rumination, and personality dysfunction are common areas of need
linked to the behaviour through individual formulation. Aspects of this list
are also captured by some of the risk factors in the two sets of structured
professional judgement guidelines for assessing stalking-­related risk (Kropp
et al., 2002; MacKenzie et al., 2009). Parkhill and colleagues’ conclusions are
also remarkably ­consistent with much of the “best practice” guidance for
34 C H A PT E R 1 Key Components and Principles of Stalking Treatment

psychological treatment of people who stalk that has been published over
the past 25 years (e.g., Kropp et al., 2002; ­MacKenzie & James, 2011; Mullen
et al., 2000, 2001, 2009; Purcell & McEwan, 2019; Rosenfeld, 2000; Rosenfeld
et al., 2009; Siepelmeyer & Ortiz-­Müller, 2020; Westrup, 1998; Wheatley
et al., 2022). Consistency across these sources provides some level of face
validity for Parkhill and colleagues’ suggestions, though this is of course not a
substitute for a fully developed theory.
In the absence of robust theory or a sizeable research literature to inform
hypotheses about why a particular individual is stalking, our approach to
identifying treatment targets is “bottom-­up.” Guided by a detailed assessment,
including functional analysis of stalking behaviours, the clinician develops
an individualised cognitive-­behavioural formulation. Frequently, the kinds of
factors identified by Parkhill et al. (2022) will be relevant. However, the formu-
lation will explicitly link these factors to the behaviour via hypothesised causal
mechanisms drawn from broader psychological theories of human behaviour,
evidenced using information gathered during the assessment. The formula-
tion will also go beyond these psychological characteristics to ­hypothesise
about the potential role of symptoms of psychopathology and important sit-
uational and contextual factors in the origins, development, and function of
the stalking behaviour for that individual. A comprehensive formulation will
lead logically to an individualised treatment and risk management plan (see
Chapters 4 and 5).

How to Treat
As outlined above and in the Introduction, we take the view that stalking
behaviour likely results from similar psychological processes that lead to other
forms of problematic and criminal behaviour and to human behaviour gener-
ally. We are strongly influenced by the broad fields of behavioural, cognitive,
and social-­cognitive psychology (Bonta & Andrews, 2016). While having dif-
ferent emphases, these theoretical frameworks share the general approach
that behaviour is goal-­directed and shaped by the way a person perceives
and interprets their immediate situation, based on their previous learning,
and that cognitive and emotional states that arise from situational appraisals
affect what goals are prioritised in the short and long terms ­(Andersen &
Chen, 2002; Bandura, 2001; Beck & Haigh, 2014; Vohs & Baumeister, 2016).
A key principle of social-­cognitive approaches is that a person’s thoughts
and feelings are inextricably linked to what is happening in the situation
around them. Therefore, it is the “person in the situation” that is of interest
when seeking to understand and explain an individual’s behaviour (Mischel
& Shoda, 1995, 2010). Translated to stalking, we think that the ­reason that
some people stalk while others do not is that individual ­vulnerabilities
 How to Treat 35

(psychological and biological) interact with situational factors to generate

cognitive and emotional states in which stalking behaviour appears to be an
effective way of achieving desired (interpersonal) goals.

Specific Goals of Treatment

From this basic premise, it flows logically that interventions designed to change
stalking behaviour should use methods that are known to produce change
in relevant cognition, emotional states, and self-­regulatory abilities related
to the behaviour (Kirsch & Becker, 2006; Polaschek, 2011). The treatment
approach outlined in this book therefore reflects a fundamentally cognitive-­
behavioural problem theory and theory of change, incorporating elements
from self-­regulation-­focused approaches to behaviour change, and the idea of
“person in context” that is a hallmark of “third wave” behavioural therapies,
such as Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) and Dialectical Behav-
iour Therapy (DBT) (Hayes & Hoffman, 2017). Flowing from this, the first
four goals of stalking treatment are to:

1. effect change in awareness of psychological processes relevant to stalking

(i.e., change in ability to recognise emotional states and thinking that are
conducive to stalking);
2. effect change in emotional states relevant to stalking (i.e., internal regula-
tion of emotional states associated with stalking and change in the expe-
rience of emotions when faced with stalking-­related triggers);
3. effect change in cognition that is relevant to stalking (i.e., change in the
way that the person thinks about the situation and/or victim and change
in their ability to alter thinking that is conducive to stalking); and
4. effect change in behaviour by decreasing stalking and associated behav-
iour and increasing the use of more adaptive and effective ways of meet-
ing interpersonal goals.

To achieve these four goals, our treatment approach uses psychological

strategies and techniques that help recognise and change thoughts, infer-
ences, interpretations, cognitive biases, and cognitive schemas. We also
focus on techniques and strategies intended to increase the individual’s
ability to regulate their emotional and cognitive state effectively, such as
mindfulness, distress tolerance, and responding to rumination. Finally, we
focus on behavioural techniques and strategies targeted towards producing
a change in observable behaviour, including exposure (both imaginal and
in vivo), opposite action approaches, the deployment of social skills ­practise,
effective problem-­solving, behavioural responses to break ruminative and
­preoccupying thinking, and values-­based activity scheduling. Both the emo-
tional and behavioural actions are presented in a context of sustainable
Another random document with
no related content on Scribd:
with us than we actually had brought, for a heavier load might have
demanded more revolutions from the engine.

JUST BEFORE THE TAKE-OFF

OUR FOOTGEAR
The fact that the “Wal” had twin-engines gave us greater
confidence in it. In view of the situation of each engine it is possible
with a “Wal” to fly with one engine alone, with a heavy load on board,
much more easily than if the engines had been placed by each wing,
as they are in many other twin-motor machines. With a light load on
board a “Wal” can rise quite easily from the water with one engine
alone.
Our machine was built by “S. A. I. di Construzioni Mecchaniche i
Marina di Pisa” with only a few unimportant differences from the usual
Dornier-Wal. We owe a deep debt of gratitude to the factory’s technical
director, Herr Schulte-Frohlinde, for the great interest he showed in our
expedition. The director accompanied us to Spitzbergen and
superintended the setting up of the machines. In all he spent three
months of his valuable time on us. We, who otherwise would have
been taken up with this work, could now (while the work of mounting
was proceeding) give ourselves up to the completion of other tasks.
We also owe much gratitude to the Rolls-Royce factory. They sent
five men to Marina di Pisa to introduce certain new improvements and
inventions which they had hardly had time to “try out,” and they also
sent Mr. Green with us to Spitzbergen. Mr. Green superintended all the
trial flights and cared for the engines as though they were his
“darlings.” As he (after his final inspection on the 21st of May) smiled
and nodded in answer to my request to be told if all was in order, I set
off at full speed feeling just as safe as if I were only going to cross the
waters of the fjord.

Measures Against the Cold

The oil-tank on a Dornier-Wal stands with one of its sides outside
the engine-gondola’s wall. This side is furnished with cooling-ribs for
cooling off the oil. On our machine the tank was designed right into the
engine’s gondola and therefore any cooling off was unnecessary. In
addition to this capsules were built over the motors so that the heat
from the engines could be kept in the gondolas without cooling down
like the temperature outside. All the pipes were bound many times
round with linen strappings. Certain pipes had the inner layer of
bindings of felt. This provision was made both as a means of isolation
from the cold and to prevent “burst pipes.” Experience here in Norway
and in other lands shows us that most motor trouble on a long flight
originates in one or other of the pipes. The motor conducts itself well
generally. Truly I have seldom, if ever, seen a motor-construction so
free from vibration as on our machines and therefore there was little
possibility of burst pipes. As a safety measure, all the same, I regard
such binding as necessary. To the cooling water we added 4% pure
glycerine and thus had a mixture which would not have frozen before
we had -17° c. and we did not have such a low temperature up in the
ice regions. All the same we took the precaution of tapping the water
down on to one of the petrol tanks whenever it was not necessary to
be ready to start at a moment’s notice. By a special contrivance we
could pump the water direct from the tank into the radiator again. We
generally started the engine first, then pumped the water up. I should
like to explain why. The lower part of the intake-pipe was
encompassed by a water-cap through which a smaller quantity of the
cooling water is led for the purpose of warming the pipe. When the
propeller starts to turn, petrol begins to flow, lowering the temperature
in the petrol pipe considerably below atmospheric temperature. The
walls of the water-cap take on the same low temperature immediately.
If the cooling mixture at this time stands at a temperature which is
barely a few degrees above water’s freezing point, one runs the great
risk of there being so much freezing that the exhaust of the cap will be
blocked. If this occurs the cap will in one moment become a solid block
of ice, causing the sides to burst in consequence. Should one, on the
contrary, start the engine first and fill up, the cooling water will thus, in
its passage through the cylinders, be so warmed when it reaches the
cap that this calamity will be avoided.
As indicated above, we do not tap the water when we must be
ready for an immediate start. In order to keep the temperature in the
motor gondola so high that nothing should freeze, and the engines at
the same time should be absolutely ready for a start, we used the
Therm-X apparatus. This is the first time I have learned that this
apparatus bears this amusing name; hitherto I believed it was called
“Thermix.” (That is what we called it up in the ice and that is what we
are going to call it henceforth!) This apparatus was constructed
specially for us by the Société Lyonnaise des Chauds Catalytiques,
and was made in a size and form suitable for placing under the
engines or under the oil-tanks. Their manner of action was, otherwise,
exactly the same as the ordinary Thermix apparatus. We had six
apparatus in each gondola and could thus, in a short time, raise the
temperature to 35° above atmospheric temperature.
In the early days “up in the ice” we took the Thermix apparatus
down in the mess when the cooling water was tapped off. They
warmed the place up so well that we found it really pleasant and
comfortable. In the evening when we separated to go to bed, we
divided the apparatus amongst us in the three sleeping compartments,
and there we slept in a little Paradise (as compared with the later
times) when of necessity we had to economize, even in the small
quantity of petrol which they used. There we hung our frequently
soaking-wet socks, goat’s-hair socks and shoes, directly over the
apparatus to dry. I remember still how comfortable it was to put on the
warm dry footwear in the morning. During the time that we were not
able to use the Thermix apparatus we had to lay our stockings on our
chests when we went to bed in the evening—a not too comfortable
proceeding. The high temperature we were able to keep up in the body
of the plane when we had the apparatus going prevented the machine
from freezing fast in the ice. There was always a tiny little puddle
outside the body of the machine.
In order to be able to warm up the motor and the oil with the help
of this apparatus, it was necessary that we should start the engine,
screw out the sparking plugs in each cylinder, warm it up well, and set
it ready for starting again. This prevented moisture gathering on the
plugs. To help to get the petrol warm we ran along the petrol pipes with
a large soldering-lamp to help to make the petrol flow easily. On
account of these preparations we never had starting difficulties; the
engines started at once.
In case the petrol might be thick and slow in flowing we had
brought with us a quantity of naphtha with which to spray the cylinders.
We never needed, however, to make use of it.
The radiator was equipped with blinds, with which we could
regulate the radiation. They were of untold benefit to us. When the
blinds were fully barred, it took much less time to warm up the motors
before attempting to start. We used thus less petrol for warming up. To
get the greatest possible power out of the engines we could, by
regulation of the blinds, keep the temperature almost at boiling point at
the start, damping down later by opening the blinds wider.
That the compasses were filled with pure spirit, and not with the
spirit mixture, was of course a necessity. The same referred to the
levels and the water levels. Even though oil might not have frozen in
the event of our having had an oil level, it would in any case have
acted too slowly in the cold atmosphere. Moreover all the movable
parts of our instruments, which were designated for use in the cold
regions, were smeared with a special kind of oil which had been tested
in a temperature of -40° c.
In my portion of the book I must make special mention of the pilot’s
rig-out. For flying in a cold temperature it is of the greatest importance
that the pilot, who must sit still the whole time, should be warm and
appropriately clad. It is easy to find the most beautiful heavy leather
suits which can withstand every attack of cold and frost, but it is not so
easy to find garments which are appropriate for all circumstances.
Even though the pilot has to sit still he must have freedom to move
about without his clothes handicapping him. They must in all respects
be easy and pliable. What is most important is that they should be
absolutely suitable for any work which may be needed before the start.
I shall try to explain why a little more intimately. There will always be
one thing or another to be done immediately before a start is made,
and as far as we were concerned we might have to land to take
observations at any time, and start off again immediately afterwards. If
during such a landing we kept on all our flying clothes as we moved
about the ice, we should quickly become much too warm; our
underclothes would become clammy, causing us to shiver when we
should once again rise in the air. Had we only one heavy outer set of
clothes, and we took it off for any reason, we should risk taking severe
cold, and would start flying again thoroughly chilled. Our outer clothes
were therefore arranged in several plies so that without waste of time
we could take them off or put them on again to suit the temperature,
according to whether our work was strenuous or not. Our
undergarments were presented to us by the Norske
Tricotagefabrikanters Forening. They were made after we had had a
conference with one of the manufacturers, H. Meyer Jun. Next the skin
we wore a quite thin woolen vest and a pair of pants of the same
material. On the top of these we had a pair of heavy pants and a vest
of Iceland wool. Then long trousers, and a jumper, with a woolen
helmet to pull over the head. Rönne had made these suits which were
of a thin comfortable wind-proof cloth (a present from A/S William
Schmidt, Oslo). This was our working kit and also our skiing rig-out
intended to be worn should we eventually have to set out on a march
to reach land.
The flying suits were composed of a roomy jacket and long
trousers of thin pliable leather with camel hair outside. The leather
suits were presented to us by the Sporting Outfitters, S. Adam, Berlin.
On the top of these we wore a sealskin “anorak” (Eskimo jacket with
peaked hood). This outfit was made absolutely to accord with the
demand of the aforedescribed conditions.
On our heads we had a leather-lined flying-helmet. Should this not
afford sufficient warmth, we could draw the anorak’s hood over our
heads. In order to have glasses which would be suitable for any
possible condition we had taken with us a pair of ordinary spectacles
with clear glass. At the side of the pilot’s seat hung a pair of goggles
and a pair of sun-glasses; also a mask with which one could cover the
greater part of the face. However, as we sat well protected behind the
wind-screen, we were never required to use the mask. I might mention
in conjunction with all this that we took advantage of the opportunity to
discard shaving from the first day.
Round our necks we wore a big woolen scarf, and on our hands a
pair of specially made gloves of double pig-skin, with wool both inside
and out. Over these we drew a pair of gloves of thin wind-proof
material, which went right up to the elbow, where they could be drawn
up and tied. Roald Amundsen will have told you all about the footwear,
but in conclusion I should like to point out that any one could fly in this
kit daily in the most severe cold.
Progress is distressingly slow in this account of mine. To-day is the
3rd of August and up till now I have only written 4,000 words. That is
scarcely 1,000 words per day. I shall have to triple my speed and push
forward if I am to finish with my task in time.
As I sit and fag over the work of writing, and get irritated over the
difficulties which present themselves, I comfort myself by repeating the
words of an English admiral: “Good writers are generally rotten
officers.”
I see moreover from to-day’s newspapers that they wish me to be
a member of a new North Pole expedition next summer. In view of
what I am going through at the present moment I almost believe I shall
“decline with thanks.”

Spare Parts
Spare parts for the machines and engines presented an important
consideration. Spitzbergen lay so far away from the factories which
had made the material that we could not have any missing parts sent
after us. So, as far as the engines were concerned, we decided to
draw up a list of the spare parts which we should most likely need. As
an engine is made up of so many different parts the best things to do
seemed to me to order one complete reserve engine. We should
thereby have the certainty that in every event we should have at hand
one reserve part for the complete engine no matter which part should
suddenly be required. (By chance we came to need a reserve part
which we never had thought about!)
“Rolls-Royce” also made up a list of the parts which they thought
we might need more than one of, and thus we got an extraordinarily
fine equipment. We had in all engine spare parts to a value of 38,000
kronen. We should not have been able to get this equipment had not
the Rolls-Royce people shown us the great consideration of agreeing
to take back everything which we had no use for. We were in a position
similar to most expeditions, and had great financial difficulties to cope
with. I mention this as every one here at home seemed to think that
Ellsworth’s gift of 85,000 kronen would suffice for our needs. But that
was not the case. The two flying machines together cost $82,000, and
on these alone the money was almost all spent. When the expedition’s
accounts are toted up I believed that they will show a sum of at least
$100,000 in excess of Ellsworth’s gift—and that, even after we had
pinched and spared on every side. Against this we can reckon with a
certain income from stamps (this cannot at present be estimated), and
the expedition will also have an income from newspapers, films,
lectures and this book, all of which combined should cover the debt of
this necessary $100,000. The essential part of the expenses all came
before the start, but any income only accrued some time after our
return. The position at Christmas time last year appeared very
unpromising, and the outlook seemed hopeless. The till had long been
empty. Yet orders must be placed if everything was to be ready in good
time, and everything had to be paid in ready cash. Bills streamed in,
followed by demands for payment whenever they were not settled at
once. But where were we to get the money? It is satisfactory to look
back, now that everything has been accomplished, but it was far from
pleasant at the time. Our private household bills got very, very old,—so
hard-up were we!
Dr. Ræstad, who had the financial management of the undertaking,
worked on through these conditions quietly and calmly, and he was
lucky in being able to carry through a task which probably no one else
could have accomplished. Thanks to him we were able in April this
year to have everything collected in Tromsö, ready for our departure
for Spitzbergen, so that after looking through our equipment we were
able to say, “There isn’t one thing missing.”
Up till now only the returns from the newspapers have come in. We
have therefore an alarmingly large overdraft at the bank. As the
account is so overdrawn we have still difficulties to face, and must
therefore set about the fulfillment of our many obligations. We can now
look forward to a time when our income will be sufficient to pay off our
overdraft, and leave a balance, which will be used for the realization of
Roald Amundsen’s old plans.
It is on that account that I have taken this opportunity to write about
the financial side of the expedition. There are a number of people who
think that we have become rich folk. How often have I not been
congratulated—not only because I have come back with my life, but
also because I have returned as a millionaire. Probably the films
shown in this connection have given this impression. But people
should realize that we are at the mercy of the big film companies who
fix the price. If we ourselves had cinema theaters stretching through
the world’s towns, then could Roald Amundsen set out to-day on the
realization of his wonderful plan: the exploration of the sea between
the Pole and Alaska.

* * * * *
Back to the matter which I am really discussing. The same goodwill
met us in Marina di Pisa when Director Schulte-Frohlinde himself
made out the list of spare parts, assuring us (by giving the matter his
own personal attention) that we should have with us every article
necessary for the flying boats’ requirements. The bill for these spare
parts ran up to about 28,000 kronen.

Instruments
During his preparations for his earlier flight Roald Amundsen was
struck with the idea of using a sun-compass, and arranged with “Goerz
Optische Werke” to construct such an instrument. The firm met his
suggestions in the most friendly manner, and the result was our
invaluable solar-compasses. The principle of these is as follows:
The sun’s reflection is cast through a periscope down onto a dull
disc directly in front of the pilot. By the side of the instrument there is a
clock which can be coupled to a cogwheel on the periscope. The clock
is constructed so that it can swing the periscope round 360° in the
average time that it takes the sun to perform a similar movement. By
the aid of a graduated scale on the periscope, which can be placed at
a certain angle, one can set it in agreement with the flying-boat’s nose.
Should I, for example, start exactly at midday, I should set the
periscope so that it points direct astern. Exactly at twelve o’clock I
attach the clock to the instrument. Should the seaplane now by chance
face the north, I would see a little reflection of the sun in the center of
the dull disc which is marked by a cross. The periscope will now follow
the sun’s course so that the reflection will always be in the center of
the disc as long as the seaplane continues the same course.
Should it be set working at another time, it would be calculated
from the angle of the sun, at that moment when the clock is set going.
The clock is always regulated according to Greenwich time (or any
other recognized time), but the longitudinal distance must be taken into
account, and in the same manner the angle must deviate away from
the meridian beneath if one does not desire to steer parallel with it. On
the top of the periscope there is a screw with an inner part, where an
adjustment can be made according to the declination on that day. The
solar-compass is mounted on a base on which can be made
corrections for eventual latitudinal changes. The periscope’s axis must
always stand parallel with the earth’s axis. A change in the upward tilt
of the machine must also be reckoned with.
The lenses in the periscope are constructed to give a radius of 10°;
that is to say, if the sun’s reflection appears in the disc’s outer edge,
one can allow 10° before it disappears in the other outer edge. If one
has set the solar-compass for a flight directly north, one will continue in
the right direction so long as the flying machine has no deflection. In
order to detect such deflections we had a combined speedometer and
deviation measure which was also given to us free of charge by Goerz.
Amundsen attended to these on the northward journey—Dietrichson
on the southward. They both speak of them with high praise. Their
uses are shortly as follows: Inside the instrument, on a move-able ring,
is fastened a diametrical wire. One looks through the instrument down
to the ground below or to the ice, and adjusts the wire the longitudinal
way of the ship, then pays attention to the objects passing aftwards
under the plane (icebergs, for example), noting whether they follow the
direct line of the wire or deviate to the side. Should there be a
deviation, one knows that they are not following the direct course in
which the nose is pointing, so it has to be set at an angle allowing for
the deviation. The wire must be drawn to the side quite slowly until one
finds that the objects which one can notice now follow the line of the
wire exactly. This points now in the direction one comes from, and the
wire’s angle, compared with the boat’s nose, can be read directly in the
instrument. That gives the angle of deviation.
 TAKING THE WINGS OUT OF THEIR BOXES

SETTING UP THE WINGS

One can also leave the wire as it is, and turn the whole instrument
instead. The angle of deviation is to be read on the instrument’s base.
This is the easiest way, as it allows one to get on quickly with
measuring the speed. Having calculated the deviation, it is not correct
to steer against the wind allowing only a corresponding number of
degrees, or it will be found that there is still a deviation, though not so
great as before. To correct it it would have to be measured, then some
steering would have to be done, then it would have to be measured
again and so on, before it could be regulated. It is, therefore, better to
come to a quick and exact result by quickly taking the speed measure.
This is done with the same instrument, by watching an object pass
between four points of the scale, as the machine goes over it. The pilot
continues to fly in a steady course during the entire observations. The
navigator sets a stop clock going when an object passes the scale at
an angle of 45°, and he stops the clock when the object passes zero,
as it will then be centrally under the machine. The altitude above the
under-lying territory is read on the altimeter, and by aid of this and the
stop clock’s indications it is possible to calculate correctly the speed
over the ground-distance covered. We have now got the following
particulars: The speed through the air which the speedometer shows
and which is called the air-speed,—the steering course through the air
which we will call the air-course,—the speed over the ground which we
will call the ground-speed and last the deviation’s angle. These
calculations have to be worked out in conjunction with each other on a
calculating machine, showing in a second what steering-course shall
be adopted under the existing wind conditions, to carry the plane in the
desired direction. In addition to this there is a gratis enlightenment,
showing the exact direction and strength of the wind at that altitude.

MOUNTING THE WINGS

 THE LAST MEETING BEFORE THE FLIGHT
The pilot announces if a new course shall be steered. If he steers
according to the solar-compass, the navigator adjusts the solar-
compass by turning the periscope a corresponding number of degrees.
So long as one need not fly over clouds or fog all goes well. With
steadiness it is possible to control the course over the ground and
steer the plane straight to the Pole by territorial navigation. During the
two first hours, after we had passed Spitzbergen’s north coast, we had
thick fog under us and got no drift observations. As soon as we could
get these the solar-compass was corrected. We had, however, in the
meantime deviated so far westwards that the indicator pointed well
over to the west side of the Pole. One must pay particular attention to
the fact that the solar-compass only indicates a northward direction so
long as one is on the same meridian which the compass was adjusted
to. If one has deviated to the side and continues to steer according to
the solar-compass, one will set a course directly parallel with the
meridian for which the compass was adjusted when starting. For a new
adjustment of the compass, so that it points towards the Pole, one
must in every case take the bearings. Both during the northward
journey, and during the homeward flight, the solar-compasses were of
the utmost benefit to us. Without these and depending only on the
magnetic compasses we should have been very much less confident.
The selection of our magnetic compasses was only settled after we
had studied the various types most analytically, paying particular
attention to the conditions which they would have to answer to in the
Arctic Ocean.
I should like here to mention a common mistake founded on a
popular idea, that the Magnetic Pole lies at the North Pole. The globe
is a great magnet which has two magnetic points, a North Pole and a
South Pole, and fortunately the Magnetic Poles do not lie in the same
places as the geographical poles. The earth’s magnetic North Pole,
which draws towards itself the compasses’ North, lies on the north
coast of Canada about 70° N. and 95° W. long. In general this is called
for convenience the magnetic North Pole. Its position, as is well
known, was verified by Roald Amundsen during the Gjoa expedition.
Looking at the map, it will be discovered that the magnetic pole lies
about an equal length from the geographical North Pole as from
Spitzbergen. Therefore it stands to reason that the compass which can
be used in Spitzbergen can therefore be used in the fairway from there
to the Pole. The one thing which might cause us moments of misgiving
was the magnitude of the compass’s variations in the district we
wished to reach. (There is little data resulting from exact observation to
give us the reason of these variations.)
During a visit to Bedford, Dietrichson and I discussed this part of
the enterprise with one of my English airman friends, Captain
Johnstone, and we are most grateful for the assistance he gave us.
The result of the discussion was that we chose a steering compass as
well as a standard compass of an up-to-date type made by the firm of
Hughes & Son, London. These compasses are made to repel
movement, and to bring the needle slowly back to its correct position
without the slightest oscillation either to the right or left. In the Arctic
Sea, where the horizontal component of the earth’s magnetism is
proportionately weak, it must always take time for the needle to swing
back into position as it is so strongly repelled by existing conditions.
But we preferred this to one with a lengthy oscillation and a big swing
backwards and forwards. Steering compasses of the above kind are
eminently suitable on account of a special construction which it will
take too long to describe here. The standard compass was excellent.
The magnetic condition in the navigation compartment was also ideal.
The deviation’s coefficiency was shown by the readings we took to be
so trifling that we could consider our compasses free from deviation.
Just before leaving Spitzbergen we had one of the German Ludoph-
compasses sent to us, with a request for us to give it a trial. I placed it
in the pilot’s compartment of N 25, where it proved itself to be an
excellent compass. If the machine heeled over the dial also took a
certain tilt and the vertical component of the earth’s magnetism caused
considerable oscillation as the natural result of its great attraction.
Whilst the Ludoph-compass oscillated somewhat, the other took some
time to swing back, making it impossible for me to say which I
preferred. I steered with both of them, controlling the one by the other.
During the homeward flight I continually steered by the magnetic
compasses, and had no difficulty so long as I could have a “Landmark”
ahead. During the fog it was not such an easy matter.
A/G Gyrorector, Berlin, kindly placed at our disposal a gyroscopic
apparatus for each machine—as a loan. This instrument commended
itself to me and is the best I have seen hitherto for flying in fog or
darkness. The rising and tilting indicator was of use to me during the
whole flight. The conditions, however, were such that I did not have to
make great use of the direction indicator, beyond the fact that on the
northward flight I experimented with it in case we should find it
necessary at some time to make a forced landing in the fog. The
arrangement between the two planes was that at all costs, if we should
pass through fog, not to get separated from each other. At the close of
the homeward journey, as mentioned elsewhere, we flew into such
thick fog that I could have made use of the direction indicator. We flew,
however, so low there that the whole time I had to keep my eye glued
to the ice beneath and in front of us.
We had ordered a wireless installation for N 24, but went without it
as it was not ready in time. It was the only thing we went off without.
We never missed it. I might mention here that we had laid down a
principle not to wait at all for any belated goods.
After seeing that many different suppliers, at home as well as
abroad, should despatch the goods in time to reach Tromsö, to be
loaded by a certain date, I got endless notices to say the goods would
be belated and that we must put off our flight some days. The answer
was always the same: “We shall go without goods if they have not
arrived.” The result was, except in the case of the wireless, that
everything was delivered in good time. Had we once started to put off
our departure we should have had constant delays.

Navigation
It will perhaps interest those readers who have a knowledge of
navigation to hear a little more about Sverdrup of the “Maud’s” cleverly
calculated but simple methods of navigation in the Arctic Sea. I repeat
word by word Sverdrup’s own well-known description:
“One single measuring of the sun’s altitude shows that one stands
on one particular spot, in a small circle whose center is the point,
where at that moment the sun has reached its zenith, the radius of
which is 90° h. (h. indicates the measured height of the sun). This
circle shall be called a local circle.”
In order to find the meridian the sun would be in at the exact
moment of observation one must read a clock, the agreement of which
with Greenwich mean time (G.M.T.) is known. An almanac gives the
time level to be added to, or subtracted from, G.M.T.—giving
Greenwich true time (G.T.T.). The sun would then be over that
meridian, the latitudinal difference of which from Greenwich is equal to
the time taken for a clock to strike, according to G.T.T., and would be in
its zenith over the point, the breadth of which is equal to the sun’s
declination.
Taking an observation of the sun’s altitude, with a simultaneous
noting of the clock’s striking, can be done most rationally by describing
a tangent from a local circle in the neighborhood of the place where
one believes oneself to be. Such a tangent should be called a local
line. In the neighborhood of the Pole it is easy to find local lines without
scientific calculations. The meridian the sun is in can be found directly
one has calculated the clock’s stroke by G.T.T. The local circle cuts the
meridian in the distance h—d from the Pole, where d signifies the
sun’s declination. This cutting-point we will call the local circle’s Pole
point. If the difference h—d is positive, this point will be on the same
side of the Pole as the sun, should it be negative it will be on the
opposite side. A line dropped on the meridian which the sun is in,
through the local circle’s Pole point, describes a tangent from the local
circle. We will call this tangent the “Pole tangent.” At a distance from
the Pole point equal to 5° of latitude, the Pole point will represent the
local circle with sufficient exactitude, and can be considered as a local
line. But if the distance increases, the tangent’s divergence from the
circle will be noticeable. Sverdrup explains how, by an easy method,
one can calculate the corrections which have to be made, should one
find oneself within the above-mentioned limits from the Pole. During
our observations in the ice region we were always within the limit, and
had therefore no need for corrections. The method is of course
particularly simple and sufficiently exact because there is so little
difference between the hour-angle and azimuth. I here give a table of
our observations on the night of the 22nd immediately after landing:

Clock readings: 3 h 23′ 3″

Error -1 h 0′ 19″
G.M.T. 2 h 22′ 44″
Time level + 3′ 33″
G.T.T. 2 h 25′ 17″
Converted into degrees: 36° 3′
Sun’s lower rim from the 35° 58′ 2″
imaginary horizon
measured
Half of this 17° 59′
Mistakes: 0
Corrections + 13′
Sun’s center correct altitude 18° 12′
Sun’s declination 20° 15′ 4″
h—d: - 2° 3′ 4″
Converted into nautical miles 123.4

On a chart we drew a line representing Greenwich meridian, and a

point on that was selected as the North Pole. The angle 36° 3′ was set
from north to east and the sun’s meridian drawn through the North
Pole. From the last named point towards the southwest we marked out
123.4 nautical miles, as the h—d was negative we drew the local line
straight up to the sun’s meridian.
 Hereby we had the line on which we stood, and must wait until the
sun had changed its position to complete our calculations. The cutting
point between the local lines would give our position.
According to G.T.T. 5 h 47′ we took an observation in the morning
which gave h—d by -33 nautical miles. These observation lines were
constructed on the same chart, and the cutting point gave us our
position 87° 47′ N. lat. and 13° W. long.
Some days later we used these data as examples and re-
calculated the same observations according to the method of St.
Hilaire, and thereby found that our landing point lay on N. lat. 87° 43′
2″ and W. long. 10° 19′ 5″.
After our return our observations were again re-calculated
according to absolutely exact astronomical formula by Cand. mag. R.
Wesöe, under the guidance of Professor Schroeter. According to their
calculations the most northerly point turned out to be N. lat. 87° 43′
and W. long. 10° 37′, the very spot where we had our first camp.
During reconnoitering we went further north, but without taking
observations. In addition to this Cand. mag. Wesöe calculated the
positions as follows. I herewith give four:

1925. 22/5 N. lat. 87° 43′ Long. W. 10° 37′

28/5 „ 87° 32′ „ „ 10° 54′ 6
29/5 „ 87° 31′ 8 „ „ 8° 3′ 9
12/6 „ 87° 33′ 3 „ „ 8° 32′ 6

These positions give an idea of the drift of the ice easterly and
southerly.

Soundings
We could see that it would be a matter of great and special interest
if we could take soundings where we landed, and, discussing it fully,
we came to the conclusion that we ought to be able to get sounding
materials with a reasonable weight. We got into communication with
the Behm Echolot Factory in Kiel, and all our difficulties were
immediately brushed aside. After I had been to Kiel and talked over the
matter with Herr Behm an excellent apparatus was made and placed
gratis at our disposal. (As there were great depths in the district where
we were to land, it was not necessary to take the depth to the nearest
meter, but we could make an approximate registration. The weight of
the whole sounding equipment, with cartridges for a number of
charges, was cut down to a few kilograms. There was therefore no
obstacle in the way of our taking it with us in the flying machine—and
we could also have taken it with us even had we had to make a march
towards land.)
The principle was simply as follows. A watertight microphone was
sunk about four meters down in the water of a crack in the ice. The
microphone was attached by a line to an ordinary head-microphone,
which the observer wore. At a distance of twenty-five to fifty meters
from the observer a little charge was sunk under the surface which
contained ten grams of trinol and was provided with a detonator. The
charge was exploded by an electric spark. The observer set a stop-
clock going when he heard the explosion, stopping it as soon as he
heard the echo from the sea bottom.
On May 28th we took two soundings immediately after each other,
and in both cases the stop-clock’s time proved to be five seconds. As
sound travels in sea-water at the rate of 1,500 meters per second, the
distance from the surface down to the bottom and up to the surface
again is equal to 7,500 meters, and thus the sea’s depth is at this
place half the amount, namely, 3,750 meters. The echo was quite
sharp and not to be misunderstood. Therefore during a later drift, as
we did not move far from the place where we had taken the first
sounding, we took no more. We wished to reserve the spare charges
for a possible march.

Variations
For the exact “taking of the sun” the standard compass was
equipped with a special finder, in the same way, as there were water-
levels on the compasses. The compass was placed in the best
position, where it would be as far away as possible from every object
likely to influence it. Observations were taken on the 23rd and 29th of
May, with the results respectively, 39° 5′ and 30° westerly variation.
This is about 5° more variation than the chart allows. These
observations proved to be of great use to us when we started the
homeward flight. By calculating with these variations in arranging our
starting course we found we had achieved an important measure.

* * * * *
I will now briefly give particulars of our further equipment.
Photographic materials and binoculars, etc., were given to us by
Goerz, the cinematograph appartus was a gift from the “Hahn
Aktiengesellschaft für Optik & Mechanik,” Berlin. The films and plates
for the camera, also the cinema films, were given to us in generous
numbers by the “Goerz Photochemische Werke,” Berlin. It is quite
unnecessary to mention that all the things given to us by these firms
were of first class material and everything functioned to our greatest
satisfaction, giving excellent results in spite of the difficult conditions.
Our snow glasses were a present from the firm, Optikus, Oslo, and
were specially made for us. They could not have been better. When I
count them as amongst the most important part of our outfit, I have
good grounds for doing so. Any one wishing to choose glasses, and
looking through the different types, will find that there is a tremendous
difference between them both as regards suitability of color and other
things.
There is a small detail which I should like to mention in this
connection. Many flying-men will have gone through the same
experience as I and realized how unpleasant it is to fly towards the sun
when it is at a low altitude, for, blinded by the sharp light, it is difficult to
see the instruments, and in many ways it causes a continuous strain.
As a deterrent we had small aluminium screens, made in the same
shape as the wind screen. These could be fixed as desired. At 10 p.m.
on the northward journey the sun was so dazzling that I placed the
screen in position, leaving it there until at 1 a.m. I began to look out for
a landing place, when I pushed the screen back, feeling satisfied with
its utility.