in DSM–IV–TR, a persistent pattern of behavior that involves violating the basic rights of others and ignoring age-appropriate social standards. 

Specific behaviors include lying, theft, arson, running away from home, aggression, truancy, burglary, cruelty to animals, and fighting. Specifications for the disorder from DSM–5 include callousness, lack of guilt, and a shallow affect. CD is distinguished from oppositional defiant disorder by the increased severity of the behaviors and their occurrence independently of an event occasioning opposition. Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder frequently coexists with or is misdiagnosed as conduct disorder.