Hyperfocus and offending behaviour: a systematic review

Hyperfocus and offending behaviour: a systematic review Rachel Worthington, Suzanne Wheeler The Journal of Forensic Practice, Vol. ahead-of-print, No. ahead-of-print, pp.- Hyperfocus (HF) is characterised by an intense state of concentration/focus. The purpose of this study is to explore in what ways HF has been found to contribute towards offending behaviour and what treatments have been found to be efficacious to reduce offending behaviour where HF was a contributing factor.The systematic review was performed according to the recommendations of the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses. Papers were screened for quality appraisal and risk of bias. The initial search yielded 9,446 articles. Fifty-seven papers were deemed as meeting the inclusion criteria.HF was noted to act as a vulnerability factor for aggression, sexual offending, radicalisation and stalking. HF was also observed in clients with psychopathy, autism, mental illness and those without a diagnosis. Thus, HF was not found to be offence or diagnosis specific. Furthermore, HF was found across males and females and adults and adolescents. The results identified themes in relation to the mechanisms by which HF may contribute to offending and suggested interventions for HF and offending.Practitioners working with clients with HF currently lack evidence on the extent to which this contributes towards offending and recidivism and how HF could be addressed in interventions. Future research i...
Source: Journal of Forensic Practice - Category: Forensic Medicine Authors: Source Type: research