The Substance Abuse Subtle Screening Inventory was constructed to screen for substance abuse patterns despite non-admittance of respondents. Predictive validity studies of the SASSI are limited, and are not available for probationers. Participants were 147 male and 54 female probationers mandated to treatment. Overall differences among SASSI scales were significant for treatment compliance and outcome. Higher SASSI scales were found among those probationers who were compliant/successful. Individual scales were not significantly different, however, a trend was revealed; those respondents who scored higher tended to comply/succeed in treatment. The SASSI alone accurately classified 59.7% of respondents. In summary, the SASSI's use in predicting treatment outcome is limited and should be employed with concomitant data.

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The accurate evaluation of substance use is a critical component of forensic assessment due to the well-established link between drug use sentencing issues and risk of recidivism. Due to limited resources and chronic time constraints, practitioners typically rely only on self-report measures to assess substance use (SU) patterns. As these measures directly inquire about SU patterns, they remain vulnerable to response distortion. This can lead to ineffective treatment recommendations made to the Court and misuse of resources. The present study investigated the utility of the PAI and SASSI-3 in identifying SU patterns in offenders mandated to a long-term treatment facility. As a second major component, offenders were examined post-release to identify predictors for poor treatment outcomes. Results found the direct questioning approach best identified SU patterns in the present sample. In addition, while statistically significant differences in treatment outcomes were not observed between offenders who endorsed a more severe course of their SU problem versus those who endorsed a much less problematic pattern of use, they were trending in the expected direction. Specifically, offenders who used "hard" drugs regularly (e.g., cocaine, heroin), had more negative consequences directly related to their use (e.g., more arrests, prior treatment), and had a more complex clinical presentation (e.g., endorsing more personality pathology) did have worse outcomes by follow up. Methodological and statistical limitations are discussed in depth, and future directions to improve on this study and clarify these relationships are emphasized.