Robert D. Hare

Robert D. Hare, C.M. (born 1934 in Calgary, Alberta, Canada) is a researcher in the field of criminal psychology. He developed the Hare Psychopathy Checklist (PCL-Revised), used to assess cases of psychopathy. 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.

Life and career

Hare's father was a roofing contractor and his mother was of French Canadian descent. He recalls that he 'coasted' through high school with average grades. He then attended the University of Alberta for a Bachelor of Arts degree which ended up 'more by default' with an emphasis on psychology. In 1960 he completed a Master of Arts in psychology at the same university. He then moved to the USA to study for a PhD program, but due to his daughter falling ill the family returned to Canada. Hare then worked in the prison system in British Columbia for eight months, an area in which he had no particular qualification or training; indeed he would later recount in Without Conscience that some prisoners were able to manipulate him. Hare then moved to Ontario where he completed his PhD with a dissertation on the effects of punishment on behaviour. His research led him to The Mask of Sanity by American psychiatrist Hervey M. Cleckley, which played a pivotal role in the concept of psychopathy he applied and developed.