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Spot the early warning signs

Thousands of UK women experience daily violence or abuse and two women in England and Wales are killed every week by a current or former partner. To raise awareness and to help save women from a lifetime of abuse, Refuge has launched an 'Early Warning Signs' campaign

What are the early warning signs?

If a woman is forced to change her behaviour for any reason then she is being abused. If she is experiencing any of the following then it's likely that she's being abused:

• Is he jealous and possessive?
• Does he cut her off from family and friends and try to isolate her?
• Is he charming one minute and abusive the next. Does he have sudden changes of mood - like Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde?
• Does he control her life? For example money issues, who she should see, what she should wear? Does he monitor her movements?
• Does he blame her for the abuse?
• Does he humiliate or insult her in front of others?
• Does he verbally abuse her?
• Does he constantly criticise her?
• Does he use anger and intimidation to frighten her and make her comply with his demands?
• Does he tell her she's useless and couldn't cope without him?
• Has he threatened to hurt her or people close to her if she leaves?
• Does she change her behaviour to avoid making him angry and triggering an attack?
• Does he force her to have sex when she doesn't want to?

There are also many different ways of being abusive. Here are a few examples:

• Damaging a woman's possessions
• Smashing up the furniture
• Threatening to kill the pets
• Threatening to kidnap or get custody of the children if she leaves
• Locking her out of the house during an argument
• Terrorising her by driving fast or through red lights at high speed because he knows it frightens her

For more information on Refuge and their early warning signs campaign visit www.refuge.org.uk

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