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About Abuse

Abuse Using Technology

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Updated: 
March 29, 2018

What does it mean to document my evidence?

Any evidence can be documented so that you can access it later. For purposes of this page, to document your evidence means that you are taking steps to:

  • preserve (keep) evidence of abuse; or
  • accurately record (in a log, for example) incidents of abuse as they happen.

Part of documenting evidence means that you are not changing the evidence at all – so, for example, if the abuser sends a threatening email that is unsigned, you cannot add his/her name to the email just because you know that s/he wrote it. Documenting your evidence can be helpful if you later need to produce it for a court hearing or other legal matter. Documenting your evidence could include things like keeping a log of abusive incidents, printing out abusive emails, taking screenshots of abusive text messages or social media posts, or printing any related photographs or cell phone records.