Adapting and Using the Substance Abuse Subtle Screening Inventory-2 With Criminal Justice Offenders: Preliminary Results

• NCJ Number: 175983
• Journal: Criminal Justice and Behavior Volume: 25 Issue: 3 Dated: September 1998 Pages: 344-365
• Author(s): J A Swartz
• Date Published: 1998
• Length: 22 pages
• Publication Format: Article
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

This article presents the preliminary results of adapting and using the Substance Abuse Subtle Screening Inventory-2 (SASSI-2) with criminal justice populations to identify the treatment needs of substance-abusing offenders.

Abstract

After an extensive review of available screening and assessment instruments, an internal review committee at Illinois Treatment Alternatives for Safe Communities (TASC) decided that the SASSI-2 met virtually all of the required criteria delineated by Hepburn (1994). The SASSI-2 is brief, objective, has a clear and straightforward set of classification rules, and is easy to administer. Moreover, it is economical and, because administration requires only 10 to 15 minutes, can be used to screen large numbers of criminal justice clients. Another important feature of the SASSI-2 is its ability to detect chemically dependent clients who are attempting to minimize or deny their problematic drug use. In addition, the SASSI-2 contains a subscale for assessing a client's degree of criminal involvement. Through pilot testing with 200 probationary and 100 pretrial adult criminal offenders referred to Illinois TASC, separate norms based on the SASSI-2 were developed for making treatment referral decisions. Analysis of SASSI-2 data collected from larger samples of criminal offenders showed that it apparently accurately screens for chemical dependency and that the treatment referrals based on the norms developed in the initial pilot study were reasonable. The SASSI-2 Corrections subscale also distinguished well between offenders with more extensive criminal histories and those with fewer prior arrests. Although more rigorous validation studies are needed, this study recommends that the SASSI-2 be considered for use with criminal justice populations when a brief, objective, and accurate screening tool for chemical dependency is needed. 1 table and 32 references