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Key indicators:
• Peer-Individual anti-Social Behavior, Juvenile arrests for Behavioral Crimes, Crimes Against Persons, Crimes Against Property.
  
  
• Children who are aggressive in grades K-3 are at higher risk for substance abuse. When a child's aggressive behavior in early grades is combined with isolation or withdrawal, there is an even greater risk of problems. This risk factor also includes persistent antisocial behavior in early adolescence, like misbehaving in school, skipping school and getting into fights with other children.
  
  
• Children who are aggressive in grades K-3 are at higher risk for substance abuse. Young people, both girls and boys, who engage in these behaviors during early adolescence, are at increased risk for drug abuse, juvenile delinquency, violence, school dropout, and teen pregnancy.

Rationale for prioritizing risk factor:
• Early behavior is a sign of future negative, illegal, and/or dangerous behaviors. Addressing these behaviors when they begin - and when they are behavior crimes instead of criminal offenses - instead of waiting until the child is in or near adulthood will have positive effects.
  
  
• Future problems may be prevented, both in that person, and in those with whom they interact (such as siblings and/or their own children). Addressing the issues before the activities become serious, chronic, or violent will also reduce the many stresses placed on social systems that focus on or respond to negative behavior by reducing the recidivism rate of juvenile delinquency.
  
  
• The number in this category are almost without exception exceedingly high when compared to the rest of the state. While the trend shows that the overall arrest rate for juveniles is down, the rate is still high enough to be of concern. This risk factor is predictive of all five problem behaviors in the Comprehensive Strategy framework. In order to build effective prevention strategies and programs, it is important that at-risk behavior be acknowledged when it begins to show a pattern at a young age.