Adelle Forth

Professor

Ph.D.
Email Adelle Forth

Biography

Adelle is a Professor in the Department of Psychology at Carleton University. She is the senior author of the Hare Psychopathy Checklist: Youth Version (Forth, Kosson, & Hare, 2003) and a co-author of the Structured Assessment of Violence Risk in Youth (Borum, Bartel, & Forth, 2003), a risk scale for predicting adolescent violence. She has also served as a consultant to the Federal Bureau of Investigations, Royal Canadian Mounted Police, the National Parole Board, Her Majesty’s Prison Service, the Pennsylvania Sex Offender Board, and has testified in various court proceedings on the construct of psychopathy.

Research Interests

Her research centers on the assessment and correlates of psychopathy in different populations, the emotional and cognitive processes that underlie psychopathy, and violence risk assessment. Her most recent research has focused on the impact of psychopathy. She has extensive experience training a wide variety of professionals on the administration, scoring, and use of psychopathy measures throughout North America, Europe, and Asia.

Selected Publications

Sohail, R., & Forth, A. (2025). Psychopathy and mental imagery: The role of imagery in social dominance, callousness, and impulsivity. Imagination, Cognition, and Personality. Advance Online Publication. https://doi.org/10.1177/02762366251374186

Swanek, J., Karasavva, V., Burnet, L., Sohail, R., & Forth, A. (2025). “It’s not that serious”: Individual and situational factors that influence perceptions of online versus in-person sexual coercion. Computers in Human Behavior, 172, 108745. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2025.108745

Doyle, E.C., Healey, L. V., Seto, M.C., & Forth, A. E. (2025). Challenging forensic stigma: The efficacy of education and indirect contact interventions in addressing stigma towards forensic patients. International Journal of Forensic Mental Health, 1-11. https://doi.org/10.1177/14999013241301093

Gray, A., Mills, J., & Forth, A. (2024). Risk for violent and IPV recidivism among incarcerated male offenders: An examination of the predictive validity of the DVRAG, ODARA, and PCL-R. Criminal Justice and Behavior, 52(1), 119-137. https://doi.org/10.1177/00938548241280397

Brazil, K., & Forth, A. (2024). Adolescent psychopathic traits, early adversity, and intimate partner violence. Criminal Justice and Behavior, 51(2), 213-229. https://doi.org/10.1177/00938548231219810

Brazil, K., Kurganov, S., Moore, M., & Forth, A. (2024). Feeling, caring, knowing revisited: Three components of empathy and psychopathic and autistic traits. Journal of Psychopathology and Behavioral Assessment, 46, 734-748. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10862-024-10164-x

Stewart, J., Swanek, J., & Forth, A. (2024). Actions speak: Personality, nonverbal behaviors, and self-perceptions of vulnerability in college-aged women. Journal of Criminal Psychology, 14 (4), 411-427. https://doi.org/10.1108/JCP-02-2024-0013

Karasavva, V., Brunet, L., Smodis, A., Swanek, J., & Forth, A. (2023). Putting the Y in cyberflashing: Exploring the prevalence and predictors of reasons for sending unsolicited nude or sexual images. Computers in Human Behavior, 140, 107593. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2022.107593

Humeny, C., Forth, A. E., & Logan, J. (2022). Psychopathic traits predict the severity of post-traumatic stress in survivors of intimate partner abuse. Personality and Individual Differences, 193, 111611. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2022.111611

Karasavva, V., & Forth, A. (2022). Personality, attitudinal, and demographic predictors of non-consensual dissemination of intimate images. Journal of Interpersonal Violence, 37(21-22). https://doi.org/10.1177/08862605211043586

Stewart, J., Forth, A., & Beaudette, J. (2022). Working with a psychopath: Is there light at the end of the tunnel? International Journal of Offender Therapy and Comparative Criminology, 66(15), 1726-1751. https://doi.org/10.1177/0306624X211058957

Forth, A., Sezlik, S., Ritchie, M., Lee, S., Logan, J. & Ellingwood, H. (2022). Toxic relationships: The experiences and effects of psychopathy in romantic relationships. International Journal of Offender Therapy and Comparative Criminology, 66(15), 1627-1658. https://doi.org/10.1177/0306624X211049187

De Brito, S., Forth, A., Baskin-Sommers, A., Brazil, I., Kimonis, E. R., Pardini, D. Frick, P., Blair, R. J. R & Viding, E. (2021). Psychopathy. Nature Reviews Disease Primer, 7(1), 49. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41572-021-00282-1