Service Needs Inventory: Development, Reliability, and Preliminary Validity

Although measures for assessing mental health functioning and criminogenic need exist independently, there remains a need for an integrated measure that assesses both constructs simultaneously. The Service Needs Inventory (SNI) was developed to identify aspects of mental health functioning and criminogenic needs of criminal justice-involved persons with mental illness (CJ-PMI). In this multistudy series, Studies 1 (n = 66 male probationers) and 2 (n = 185 male probationers) conducted item analysis and reliability analysis of the eight SNI subscales: Criminal History, Antisocial Attitudes and Associates, Positive Psychotic Symptomology, Social Functioning, Social Networking, Substance Abuse, Negative Affect,and Traumatic History. The SNI was reduced from 197 to 158 items and internal consistency values for the subscales ranged from.76 to.93 in Study 1. In Study 2 the SNI was further reduced from 158 to 94 items; all original subscales were retained, and internal consistency values for the subscales ranged from.60 to.84. Test–retest reliability for the measure over a 2-week interval was high (r =.91). Study 3 (n = 66 participants from Study 1) provided preliminary examination of concurrent validity with Pearson’scorrelation coefficients demonstrating medium to large associations (r =.41–.67) with their respective reference measure.