In some areas of the US the incidence of violence-related spinal cord injuries (SCIs) is double or triple that of 10 years ago. The purpose of this study was to determine if this trend is evident in Arkansas, a small rural state. For the study period 15.3% of traumatic SCIs identified in Arkansas were violence-related. The overall incidence rate of traumatic SCIs in Arkansas declined from 41.11 per million in 1980 to 33.18 per million in 1989. However, the rate of violence-related SCIs rose from 3.5 per million in 1980 to 5.14 in 1989. The incidence of violence-related SCIs in Arkansas did not increase dramatically during the 1980s. However, the incidence of women with violence-related SCIs nearly tripled. With the dramatic rise in violence-related SCIs in women and the decrease in violence-related SCIs in men, the gender gap has been virtually eliminated in violence-related SCIs.