During a prolonged period of time, the problem of violence among the minors in Russia did not receive enough attention, because the proportions of this phenomenon had not been very significant. Present work addresses students' representations of violence. Evaluating violence manifestations as a normative action or an action deviating from the accepted norm defines the reaction to it both in the direct participants and in the surrounding people. For a long time, this aspect has not been studied, which defines its novelty. Systemic approach is the methodic foundation of present study. We used survey as the main research method. The results are differentiated by students' age, gender and place of residence. The obtained data show that adolescents mainly see violence as openly aggressive behavior. The adequacy of violent actions is higher if the actions come from the peers, and lower if they come from adults. There are no significant differences between boys and girls in understanding violence, but the differences are significant between younger and older adolescents and between city and country residents. The results of the study would allow minimizing the risk related to violence.