Document and Handwriting analysis

1. Document and Handwriting analysis

2. Documents as evidence Document specialists are called to : • Verify handwriting and signatures • Authenticate documents • Characterize papers, pigments, and inks • Restore erased and obliterated handwriting • Determine the relative ages of documents and inks

3. Handwriting analysis • The primary basis of handwriting analysis as a science is that every person in the world has a unique way of writing. • When we were all kids in primary school, we learned to write based on a particular copybook - a style of writing. • Which copybook our handwriting is based on depends on when and where we grew up.

4. So, why don’t we all write the same? • As time passes, those writing characteristics we learned in school - our style characteristics– are changed as we developed individual characteristicsthat are unique to us, thereby distinguishingour handwriting from someone else's. • Handwriting experts say that two or more people may share a couple of individual characteristics, but the chance of those people sharing 20 or 30 individual characteristics is nearly impossible.

5. Handwriting analysis 101 • Handwriting analysts must be able to accurately distinguish between style characteristics and individual characteristics, which takes a lot of training. • The individual characteristics are what matter the most in determining authorship. • By comparing a known author’s written piece with an unknown author, handwriting expects look at the differences, not the similarities, between the two samples.

6. Forgery! • If the­re are key differences in enough individual characteristics, then the two documents were not written by the same person. • However, if the differences don't rule out a match, and there are significant similarities in the individual traits in the two documents, singular authorship becomes a possibility. • The expert’s job is to turn possibility into probability.

7. Three types of forgery • Blind Forgery: made without a model from which to copy • Simulation: made by copying an actual signature or writing sample • Traced forgery: made by tracing a genuine writing sample

8. detecting Simulation • Simulation occurs when a person is either trying to disguise his handwriting to prevent the determination of a match or to copy someone else's handwriting to encourage the inaccurate determination of a match. • There are certain traits that analysts look for to determine whether a handwriting sample is the result of simulation. • These include shaky lines, dark and thick starts and finishes for words and a lot of pen lifts, all of which come from carefully, slowly forming letters instead of writing quickly and naturally.

9. What do handwriting analysts look for? • Letter form- This includes curves, slants, the proportional size of letters, the slope of writing and the use and appearance of connecting lines (links) between letters. • Line form- This includes how smooth and dark the lines are, which indicates how much pressure the writer applies while writing and the speed of the writing. • Formatting - This includes the spacing between lettersand between words, the placement of words on a line and the marginsleft empty on a page. It also considers spacing between lines -- do strokes from words on one line intersect with strokes in words on the line below and above it?

10. Ink analysis • Another way to verify the authenticity of a document is to perform ink analysis. • Non-destructive methods include microscopy and luminescence. • Microscopy is used to distinguish the type of writing instrument used and the color qualities of the ink. • Visual or infrared luminescence is used to differentiate between inks. • It can be used to find the original writing on a document that has been obliterated with a different ink or to distinguish sections that have been altered with different inks.

11. Chemical ink analysis • Chemical ink analysis requires a short length of a document’s line be removed, which destroys part of the document . • The traditional method for chemical analysis of ink is to use Thin Layer Chromatography (TLC.) • It  involves removing several "plugs" of ink and paper from the document, dissolvingthe ink in a solvent, and then spotting the dissolved ink onto a piece of filter paper. • The filter paper is suspended over a new solvent with just the tip of the filter paper dipped in the solvent. • The solvent soon migrates up the filter paper, carrying the ink with it. Distinct bands form, based on the physical and chemical composition of the inks .

12. Crime reconstruction • Rarely can experts identify a specific pen as having written various entries on a document. If inks cannot be differentiated one from another by any of the above examinations, this leaves three possibilities: • The same pen has been used for the entries, or • Different pens containing the same ink have been used for the entries, e.g. two pens from the same manufacturer, or • Different pens have been used for the entries which coincidentally contain inks which have identical visual and infrared properties. • Determining which of these is the case is usually impossible, unless there are significant defects within the writing implement, allowing the identification of a particular pen to be made.

13. Forensic handwriting analysis vs. graphology • Graphology is the pseudoscientific study and analysis of handwriting, especially in relation to human psychology. The graphologist looks at a sample of a person’s handwriting and uses it to diagnose a number of personality traits. • Forensic handwriting analysis, on the other hand, is the scientific comparison of a known sample of a person’s handwriting to an unknown sample. If possible, the experts use several known examples for the comparison.