Targeting dispositions for drug-involved offenders: A field trial of the Risk and Needs Triage (RANT)(TM)

Purpose This field trial examined the process of assigning drug-involved offenders to dispositions based on their criminogenic risks and needs.Methods Probation officers administered the Risk and Needs Triage (RANT)(TM) to 627 felony drug and property offenders at the pre-trial stage or shortly after sentencing to probation. The RANT(TM) was evaluated for internal scale consistency, factor structure, and predictive validity for re-arrest and re-conviction rates within 12 months of case disposition. Exploratory analyses examined whether recidivism was lower for participants who were assigned to an appropriate disposition given their assessment results.Results The RANT(TM) demonstrated acceptable internal consistency and factorial validity, and significantly predicted re-arrest and re-conviction rates within 12 months of case disposition. There was no racial or gender bias in the prediction of recidivism. Non-significant trends favored better outcomes for participants who were assigned to the indicated dispositions.Conclusions The results lend support for the RANT(TM) as a dispositional triage tool for drug-involved defendants and probationers at or near the point of arrest. The results also lend tentative support to the hypothesis that outcomes might be better if drug-involved offenders were matched to appropriate dispositions based on their risk-and-need profiles. Directions for future research are discussed.