Background Violence prevention is the priority of public health; and to master the prevalence state and risk factors of violence is the base to develop the prevention strategies. This study aimed to evaluate the violence prevalence and prevention status in China, and to provide reference for the prevention and control of violence.

Methods Violence data were obtained from the National death surveillance data set and National Injury surveillance system. The laws policies, capacity for data collection, programmes and services for violence prevention were described.

Results The trend of violence mortality has declined during 2006–2013. The mortality has decreased from 1.21/100000 in 2006 to 0.65/100000 in 2013. decreased by 46.3%. The violence mortality was high in young adult men, while it was high in female infants and old women who were over 85 years. Chinese laws and policies included the strategies on violence prevention, but not integrated. There were lack of the nonfatal violence data. Most of the prevention programmes were limit and transient.

Conclusions The different violence prevention strategies could be implemented according to gender differences. China could carry out more work in the aspects of legislation, data collection and service routinization.