This paper is part of an interdisciplinary study dealing with violence and the health process in the city of Duque de Caxias, State of Rio de Janeiro. This process expresses structural violence in addition to that related to resistance and deliquency, the outcomes of which are present in the area's overall mortality. This is an analysis of recorded data on mortality form external causes in the period 1979-1987, as well as a critical analysis of information gathered from death certificates for the year 1987. Mortality from external causes in the area studied is shown according to its magnitude and importance in relation to the major causes of death in the city, using absolute numbers, ratios, crude and standardized coefficients, rates, and years of life potentially lost, which are classified by groups of specific external causes, sex, and age. The analysis gives a socio-economic and demographic profile of the victims. The findings are discussed in the light of the sociological and historical knowledge on the social dynamics of Duque de Caxias. As a conclusion, this paper suggests a few actions that are badly needed for providing support to the victims of violence.
Violence; Mortality; Interdisciplinarity; Epidemiology
