Background and Design.- Violence is a wide¬spread public health problem. It is the second most common cause of death among individuals aged between 15-24 in the United States. Although high on the agenda in the daily press and media, violence is inadequately assessed in scientific journals in this country. We aimed to do a retrospective study on injuries related to assaultive violence considering only the new referrals during 1996 in one of the two busiest medical faculty hospitals of Istanbul. Results.- There were 12750 new emergency admissions during 1996 of which 778 (6.1%) were reported to be caused by assaultive violence. 662 (85.1 %) patients were male and 116(14.9%) female. The mean age of the male patients was 28:1 and the females was 29.8 years. The most common form of violence was beating accounting for 284 male and 82 female referrals (47%) followed by stabbing. 269 male and 22 female patients (37.4%) were admitted for stab wounds. Gunshot wounds comprised 14% of all injuries. A total of 100 male and 9 female patients were the victim of firearm violence. 5 patients (0.6%) were injured otherwise. Conclusion.- Obtaining a valid database is a pre¬requisite for solving the public health problems asso¬ciated with assaultive violence. We as physicians are confronted with this problem in our every day life and so we must be aware of the backgrounds which contribute to this widespread problem and provide the necessary counseling beside dealing with the treatment of the injuries. The backgrounds are social problems, inequality in education and payment etc. We must teach our children that violence, as a way of problem-solving is an inappropriate one.