Conduct disorder is a psychiatric disorder of childhood and adolescence characterized by aggression toward people and animals, destruction of property, deceitfulness or theft, and serious violation of rules. The worldwide prevalence of conduct disorder is 3.2% (Canino et al., 2010) and was responsible for more than 5.75 million years of healthy life lost according to the Global Burden of Disease Study 2010 (Erskine et al., 2014). The impact of the disorder reaches far beyond the personal and financial costs incurred by affected children/adolescents and their families. For example, in the United States, the estimated public cost in terms of mental health, general health, education, and juvenile justice services for a child diagnosed with conduct disorder exceeds 70,000 USD over a 7-year period (Foster and Jones, 2005).
