Background. Violence against the elderly is a social problem that occurs within the family and is not reported because of fear. This hinders the work of health multi-professional staff for the detection, reporting and prevention of such cases. Objective. To identify the prevalence, types of domestic violence, its association with socio-demographic variables and depressive symptoms in the elderly living in the community studied. Materials and methods. A quantitative, descriptive, cross-sectional study was carried out with 369 elderly in the district of Breña, Lima (Peru). The Canadian Task Force on the Periodic Health Examination and the Geriatric Depression Scale were used as socio-demographic instruments. For data analysis, descriptive statistics and logistic regression were applied. Results. Female sex, younger elderly, married marital status and family formation by the married were predominant. The prevalence of domestic violence was 79.7% and 48.2% for depressive symptoms. Financial violence was prevalent. During the regression, it was verified that whoever that does not work has a greater chance of suffering violence. The more the years of schooling, the lower the risk of violence. Also, the ones who have depressive symptoms don’t suffer violence. Conclusions. It was observed that the elderly need lifelong care. The health staff must recognize signs and symptoms in the elderly suffering violence and presenting depressive symptoms; the health staff must provide information on the importance of reporting cases to promote a healthy and qualitative aging.