Ten Warning Signs of Abuse
Does your partner:
- Put you down or call you names?
- Control where you go or who you spend time with?
- Hurt you by hitting, kicking, or strangling you?
- Blame you for their violent or abusive behaviors?
- Threaten to take your children away?
- Treat you like a servant or make all the decisions in the relationship?
- Prevent you from getting or keeping a job?
- Make or carry out threats?
- Make you afraid using looks or gestures?
- Pressure or force you into unwanted sex?
Answering yes to any of these questions could mean that you are in or at risk of being in an abusive relationship. It is not your fault, you are not alone, and there is help available.
Learn More about Domestic Violence and Tips for Safety
The one who commits the abuse is the one with the problem. It is not the person experiencing the abuse’s job to stop the violence, but there are ways they can make themselves safer.
Resources
Get Help and Support
- The Vermont Network Against Domestic and Sexual Violence - Find supports in Vermont, or get involved to help end violence.
- Pride Center's SafeSpace Program - Services for LGBTQ+ survivors of abuse.
- Deaf Vermonters Advocacy Services - For Deaf, Deaf/Blind and Hard of Hearing victims of domestic violence and sexual assault.
- Association of Africans Living in Vermont - Domestic violence education and help, and sexual health education.
Learn About Healthy Relationships
- Power and Control Wheel - Understand the kinds of unhealthy relationship behavior.
- National Network to End Domestic Violence - Education, information and national policies about domestic violence.
- Am I in a Healthy Relationship? - For teens about healthy relationships, warning signs of abuse, and dating violence.
- Futures Without Violence - Resources and advocacy efforts for survivors of domestic or sexual violence.
Help Prevent Violence
- Work Places Respond to Domestic and Sexual Violence - Support, training, and technical assistance for employers, survivors, co-workers, and advocates to deal with domestic violence, sexual harassment and violence, and stalking impacting the workplace.
- Engaging Bystanders in Sexual Violence Prevention - Online course on how to encourage friends and family to end sexual violence
- National Sexual Violence Resource Center - Research & tools to advocates working on the frontlines to end sexual harassment, assault, and abuse
- Prevent Connect - Uses various forms of online media to connect people and ideas to advance the primary prevention of sexual assault and relationship violence.
- Veto Violence - Tools, trainings, and resources to empower you and your community to prevent violence and implement evidence-based prevention strategies in your community.
- Protocol for Adolescent Relationship Abuse Prevention and Intervention - Sample protocol from Futures Without Violence intended to be adapted for use in clinical settings
