SCREENING FOR MALINGERING IN A CORRECTIONAL SETTING

This study outlines the development of the Screening SIRS, an abbrevia ted version of the Structured interview of Reported Symptoms (SIRS) fo r use as a screening measure of malingering in a correctional setting. Seventy-five inmates complaining of psychological impairment were tes ted for malingering. A subset of the participants was given both the o riginal SIRS and the Screening SIRS as a separate test with the test o rder counterbalanced; the remainder were given the original SIRS and a derived classification was determined by extracting the Screening SIR S scale scores. Using Receiver Operating Characteristic analyses, clas sification based on the Screening SIRS was significantly better than c hance. With a sensitivity of 87% and specificity of 73%, the Screening SIRS was highly predictive of classifications based on the original S IRS. These findings have instrumental implications in correctional set tings where identification of possible malingerers through a screening procedure may facilitate optimal allocation of resources.