Commentary: The importance of professional judgment in evaluation of stalking and threatening situations.

When a person is stalked, a common reaction is to consult an expert for the answers to several key questions: Is the stalker dangerous? How can I get the stalker to stop the behavior? What should I do to protect myself? Although certain risk factors are associated with an increased likelihood of violence, care must be taken in using risk factors to predict violence, because there are many exceptions to and subtleties in such analyses. Risks in stalking situations depend on interactions of potentially fluctuating and interrelated factors, and risk assessments need to be updated as more information becomes available. The consultant must consider a variety of strategies to stop the stalking behavior and to protect the victim. When one strategy does not work, the consultant should recommend shifting to another strategy. Until we have long-term follow-up studies about the impact of each intervention on each type of stalking situation, assessments of stalking situations will require the use of professional judgment and flexibility in conjunction with knowledge of the available literature.