OBJECTIVES : Violence has gained more space in health discussions, mainly due its impact on individuals and collective health. In Brazil, violence is a compulsory notification event through Violence and Accident Surveillance System (VIVA), component of Notifiable Disease Information System (SINAN) since 2006. This study aims to describe its profile in 2017 according to records of violence compulsory notification.

METHODS : This descriptive research applied secondary data of violence collected from VIVA/SINAN database for 2017. Type of violence, age, gender and State of notification were defined as study variables. Those variables were analyzed by descriptive statistics. States were grouped according to respective Brazilian regions.

RESULTS : In 2017, 307,307 cases of violence were reported at VIVA/SINAN. Most of victims were women (71.8%). Majority of cases occurred in individuals aging from 10 to 19 (26.0%). Violence notifications were more common in Southeast Brazilian region (51.6%), followed by South region (20.5%). Among the 11 types of violence categories presented at VIVA/SINAN, most frequent were physical violence (N=193,013; 62.8%), psychological/moral violence (N=75,968; 24.7%), and self-inflicted lesion (N=68,184; 22.2%). Considering only physical violence, this violence occurred more in Southeast Brazilian region (57.4%), in women (73.1%) aging from 20 to 29 years (24.7%). Least reported type of violence was human being trade, with 0.1% of notifications.

CONCLUSIONS : Physical violence in women was the most common type of notified violence in VIVA/SINAN in 2017. Physical violence may imply on health services demand to treat possible event sequels and, thus, impact directly on pubic health.