Handwriting Analysis

QUESTION ?

• A piece of paper is involved in most crimes, perhaps indirectly like in a ransom note in a kidnapping or a forged signature on a check and even directly in business records of a drug operation or as a receipt for a car rental.

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People’s Handwriting

• Like fingerprints, handwriting is one of the few definitive unique characteristics available to a person investigating someone’s penmanship, which makes it physical evidence.

• People’s writing habits carry on from childhood to adulthood. These habits are called class characteristics.

• People develop unique nuances in their writing. The combination of such unique features give their handwriting individual characteristics that differentiate one person’s handwriting from another’s.

• The way people write becomes so subconscious that it is quite difficult to disguise.

HOW to ANALYZE HANDWRITING

• The tools needed to examine a document are: stereomicroscope, templates, protractors, grids, and other measurement devices.

• Different types of light sources are needed to detect forgeries, changes, and obliterations.

• Given enough evidence and exemplars, a document expert may be able to present handwriting as individual evidence in a court of law.

Characteristics :to determine whether a signature or writing is authentic, a document

examiner will generally examine 12 characteristics

1. Line quality: are the line smooth, free flowing, and rhythmic, or shaky, nervous, and wavering?

2. Spacing of words & letters: examine space between words and letter formation and consistency in the questioned and known documents.

3. Ratio of relative height, width, and size of letters: are the overall height, width, and size of the letters consistent?

4. Pen lifts and separations: check how writer stops to form letters and begin words. Forgeries may have pen lifts or separations in unusual places.

5. Connecting strokes: comparison of lowercase and capital letters, and how strokes connect. 6. Beginning & ending strokes: how a writer begins and ends a word, number, or letter.7. Unusual letter formation: letters written backward, with a tail, or unusual capitals8. Shading & pen pressure: check for pressure on the downward and upward strokes.9. Slant : does the writing slant to the left or right, or up and down? 10. Baseline habits: is the writing above or below the line?11. Flourishes or embellishments: are there any fancy letters, curls, loops, circles, etc.?12. Placement of diacritics: check the crossing of t’s and dotting of I’s, j’s, etc.

Conclusion

• The examination of handwriting covers many areas of investigation, including verifying handwriting and signatures; authenticating documents; characterizing papers, pigments, and inks used in writing utensils, instruments, and copying machines; restoring erased and obliterated writing; and even determining the relative age of documents and inks.