Issued as part of the Canadian Electronic Library, Documents collection, and Canadian public policy collection.

Includes bibliographical references (p. 27-29).

Executive summary -- Introduction -- Objectives of the study -- Method -- Results -- Discussion -- Conclusion -- REeferences -- Appendix.

The current study used data drawn from a longitudinal research study, Better Beginnings, Better Futures (Peters, Petrunka, & Arnold, 2003), which examined the long-term impacts of an early childhood prevention program. More specifically, the research project used a longitudinal sample of 842 at-risk youth from a multi-informant perspective (i.e., parents, teachers, self-reported youth ratings) to: (1) identify early trajectories of delinquency for both boys and girls at age 8 (Grade 3), age 11 (Grade 6), and age 14 (Grade 9); (2) examine risk and protective factors at the individual, family, peer, school, and community levels that may influence the likelihood that youth will engage in criminal behaviour in adolescence; (3) examine whether youth in the identified delinquency trajectories differ substantially in Grade 9 on emotional and behavioural problems, delinquency, experience of abuse, involvement with the criminal justice system, academic/school functioning, and health/health risk behaviours; and (4) estimate the costs to government associated with each delinquency trajectory on utilization of government resources in the criminal justice system, remedial education, health care and social services, and social assistance.