A research report submitted to the School of Social Science, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in the field of Demography and Population Studies for the year 2015 / Introduction: Early sexual debut remains a public health concern, and it continues to gather interest among researchers. In part interest is driven by the unchanging age at sexual debut and even though the age of sexual debut remains unchanged, the rate of early sexual debut keeps rising in many developing countries (Pettifor et al, 2009). Approximately 60% of young people in South Africa report to have had sexual intercourse by the time they are 16 years old (Peltzer, 2006). Furthermore early sexual debut has been identified as an indicator of risky sexual behaviour; as it exacerbates the individuals exposure to sexually transmitted diseases especially HIV, which is most prevalent among the youth in the ages 15-24 years old (Mchunu, 2012). Similarly, violence also remains a public health concern as it endangers the development of young people. Approximately 3.5 million people report injuries caused by violence every year, and violence accounts for 30% of mortality (Norman et al, 2010). A prevalent feature of violence is the dual role of young men as victims and as perpetrators of violence (Seedat et al, 2009). In some areas of South Africa homicide deaths of males outnumber those of females at a rate of 7 males to 1 female death (Seedat et al, 2009). Furthermore other reported consequences of violence among the youth are mental health problems, injuries and a negative education outcome among young people in South Africa. Young people are future leaders and parents of South Africa and it is therefore important to have a study that will examine the association between two factors that have been deemed as risk factors for the development of young people. The general objective of this study is to examine the association between violence and early sexual debut among youth in South Africa. The first specific objective of the study is to identify the level of early sexual debut among youth in South Africa, while the second specific objective of the study is to examine the association between violence and early sexual debut controlling for socio-economic and demographic variables. Methodology: Data was obtained from the National HIV communication survey with a sample of 1 873,956 females and 932,397 males. who are in their youth (15-24 years old). Data was managed using the STATA 12 and was analysed in a way that answers the objectives of the study. For descriptive analysis, frequency tables and graphs were used. A chi-square test was conducted, to test for an association between violence and early sexual debut and for multivariate analysis the study employed a multinomial logistic model / GR2017