This paper investigates the problem of social violence based on the situation for mortality from external causes in Brazil, particularly in the city of Rio de Janeiro. Mortality data from the Brazilian Ministry of Health (consolidated by the Department of Epidemiology of the National School of Public Health in the period 1980-1988) are used in this study. Proportional mortality and mortality rates from external causes are given according to sex, age, specific groups of external causes, types of homicides, and traffic accidents. Despite being basically a descriptive study, this paper also studies homicides as the most significant cause of death in the configuration of violence in Brazil today.