There are two major categories of assault: simple and aggravated. Simple assault inflicts minor or no physical injury on the victim. A felonious version of assault is the type denoted as aggravated assault. It is defined as an unlawful attack by one person upon another for the purpose of inflicting severe or aggravated bodily injury. This criminal action often includes the use of a weapon against the victim. With the addition of a firearm an aggravated assault can easily become a homicide. The vast majority of assaults and homicides involve persons who are either known to or related to the victim(s). Other common factors are similar geographic distributions and young, male offenders. Some social behaviors and characteristics have been correlated to aggravated assault, such as alcohol and narcotics. Assault and homicide are more common in urban areas. Some areas suffering an increase in the occurrence of assault are located in the Great Plains, the Midwest, and New England. Assault occurrences exhibit distinct peaking in summer, on weekends, and in evening and night hours when more interaction and socialization occurs between individuals. It is possible to find regional differences in terms of assault rates. Minnesota has experienced some of the socioeconomic transitions that the most populated states of the Midwest have witnessed during the last decades in terms of industry and agriculture. Puerto Rico has some similarities with Minnesota in terms of the areas experiencing increases in the number of assaults. Minnesota and Puerto Rico are different in terms of culture, economy, and political status, but they share the reality of growing assault occurrence in zones far from the administrative and urban centers. This phenomenon is also occurring regionally in other north-central States, which are reporting higher rates of increase in the number of assaults. 9 figures, 21 references