[Psychosocial impact of violence in San Salvador].

This study had two objectives: (1) to describe the levels of victimization of Salvadorians due to criminal violence, and the population groups most affected by it; (2) to learn if these levels of victimization are related to the presence of norms, attitudes, and behaviors that encourage the occurrence of violence. For this purpose data from the ACTIVA project of El Salvador were used. The project was carried out by the University Institute of Public Opinion during October and November 1996, with a sample of 1,290 personal interviews that were presumed to be representative of people between 18 and 70 years of age living in the Metropolitan Area of San Salvador. The sample was obtained through multistage probability sampling. The results show that the level of victimization from violence is quite high in San Salvador and that it especially affects adult and young men. The results also indicate that persons who have been victims of serious aggression tend to show, more frequently than average, norms justifying and approving the use of violence, a tendency to use weapons, and aggressive behaviors toward other people.