Over 20,000 homicides and 31,000 suicides occurred in the United States in 1987, and nonfatal assaults and suicide attempts may outnumber homicides and suicides by a ratio of more than 100 to 1. Assaults range from sexual assault, robbery, and gang warfare to domestic violence. Gunshot wounds represent the second leading cause of injury mortality, ranking behind motor vehicle crashes. The public health community should promote a more complete scientific understanding of the role of firearms in homicide, suicide, and unintentional injury. This community also needs to realize that, for all violence types except suicide, both victims and perpetrators are involved. Many victims are children, while others are disproportionately young and black. The traditional public policy response to interpersonal violence has assigned responsibility to the criminal justice system and has focused preventive efforts on deterrence and incapacitation. Because violent crime rates continue to increase, this response is not adequate. Faced with the overwhelming burden of premature death and disability caused by violence and confident of the ability of epidemiological methods to help with the problem, the public health community established an agenda for the 1980's and beyond. Health priorities for violent and abusive behavior include objectives for health status, risk reduction, and services and protection. An interdisciplinary approach to violence is suggested that involves professionals from the fields of sociology, criminology, economics, law, public policy, psychology, anthropology, and public health. 15 references