Violencia en el ámbito universitario: el caso de la Universidad Nacional de Colombia

objective: to estimate the prevalence of beliefs, attitudes, perceptions and practices in the roles of witness and possible actor in riots, among the student community of the national university of colombia in bogotá. methods: a survey was applied to 500 undergraduate students in places within the university campus (cafeterias, study rooms, meeting places libraries). the survey comprised 18 variables which were grouped according to type and degree of violence. the information obtained was included in an access 200 database and analyzed with the spss 8.0 software for windows. results: from 496 useful surveys, 271 students (54.5%) were identified as non-aggressors, 163 (32.8) as type 1 aggressor and 63 (12.7%) as type 2 aggressors. significant relationships were found between the types of violence and the male sex, marital status, academic average, number of intimate couples but not with age nor with studying a given career. conclusions: violent means of expression had little or no acceptance at all by the majority of students surveyed, who prefer their opinions to be expressed through the student representatives or in working groups. however, persons participating in riots state that the available means or alternatives of expression are not enough, justifying their violent acts in certain situations. the aggressors tend to be males and believe that violent actions are more acceptable.