Abstract:
This descriptive cross sectional was carried out to characterized the victims of physical
violence attending to base Hospital Matale over of 19 weeks commencing from 13th May
2002.This group included 291 males(81.7) with a maximum number of victims in the age
group of 21-30 years (31.3) .There were 65 females victims (18.3) .Compared to the ethnic
and religious distribution of the total population of the Matale District, Tamils and Hindus
had a significantly high proportion among the victim the while the Sinhales and Buddhisms
had a significantly low proportion(p0.001)a majority of the victims (42.3) were involved in
elementary occupation while there only 6.2 of the victims having employment above the
cervical level. There was no significant difference in the distribution of individual and group
violence in relation to the ethnicity and the area of residence
