Robert Hare (psychologist)

Robert D. Hare, C.M. (born in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, 1934), is a researcher in the field of criminal psychology. He developed the Psychopathy Checklist (PCL) and Psychopathy Checklist Revised (PCL-R), used to diagnose cases of psychopathy and also useful in predicting the likelihood of violent behavior. Hare advises the FBI's Child Abduction and Serial Murder Investigative Resources Center (CASMIRC) and consults for various British and North American prison services.

Hare received his Ph.D. in experimental psychology at University of Western Ontario (1963). He is professor emeritus of the University of British Columbia where his studies center on psychopathology and psychophysiology. He was invested as a Member of the Order of Canada on December 30, 2010.

Research

Hare has spent over 35 years researching psychopathy and is the developer of the Hare Psychopathy Checklist-Revised (PCL-R), and a co-author of its derivatives, the Psychopathy Checklist: Screening Version (PCL:SV), the P-Scan, the Psychopathy Checklist: Youth Version (PCL:YV), and the Antisocial Process Screening Device (APSD). He is also a co-author of the Guidelines for a Psychopathy Treatment Program. The Hare Psychopathy Checklist-Revised, with demonstrated reliability and validity, is rapidly being adopted worldwide as the standard instrument for researchers and clinicians.

The PCL-R and PCL:SV are strong predictors of recidivism, violence and response to therapeutic intervention. They play an important role in most recent risk-for-violence instruments. The PCL-R was reviewed in Buros Mental Measurements Yearbook (1995), as being the "state of the art" both clinically and in research use. In 2005, the Buros Mental Measurements Yearbook review listed the PCL-R as "a reliable and effective instrument for the measurement of psychopathy" and is considered the 'gold standard' for measurement of psychopathy.

Hare's book Snakes in Suits: When Psychopaths Go to Work (2006), co-authored with Paul Babiak, is a study of the disruption caused when psychopaths enter the workplace.

Hare was involved in a controversy in 2010 in which he threatened legal action over a critical psychology paper that he claimed misrepresented his views. The paper was eventually published after a three-year delay.

Bibliography

Books

• Psychopathy: Theory and Research (1970) ISBN 978-0471351474
• Without Conscience: The Disturbing World of the Psychopaths Among Us (1993, reissued 1999) ISBN 978-0671732615
• Snakes in Suits: When Psychopaths Go to Work (2006), with Paul Babiak

See also

• Hervey M. Cleckley
• The Mask of Sanity
• Evil Genes

External links

• Robert Hare's website
• All about Dr. Robert Hare - CrimeLibrary.com
• Great Canadian Psychology Website- Robert Hare Biography