An image forming apparatus includes: plural recording elements that are arrayed along a crossing direction; a reading unit that sequentially reads an image formed on a recording medium; a forming unit that drives the recording elements that are continuously arrayed along the crossing direction so as to form at least one reference image on the recording medium, and then makes timings for driving the recording elements continuously arrayed in the crossing direction different from each other so as to form detection images on the recording medium; and a detection unit that detects the recording element in an abnormal state by changing a size of at least one of a threshold value and a detected value based on the detection image read by the reading unit when the recording element in the abnormal state is detected using the detected value and the threshold value.