Handwriting Analysis for CSI Investigations

1. Handwriting Analysis CSI UMMC

2. Uses of Handwriting Analysis • Determine identity of writer • In ransom notes • In document forgery • In death threats • In suicide notes • Can you think of others?

3. Comparisons Are Useful Because • No two people have identical handwriting • By adulthood, it is exclusive to an individual • Even disguised handwriting will exhibit some of the person’s individual characteristics

4. Standard Comparisons • Include sample to be analyzed • Samples from individual • Collected writing comes from prior to the beginning of the investigation (helps prevent or indicate when a person is disguising their handwriting) • Requested writing is a dictated text using the same type of paper and ink as the sample to be analyzed

5. Characteristics for Comparisons • Line quality – Do the letters flow or are they written with intent strokes? • Spacing of words and letters – an average • Ratio of height and width of letters • Connecting strokes – Are capital letters and lower case letters connected? • Unusual letter formations • Pen pressure • Slant – Left, right, slight or pronounced • Baseline habits – Do the letters stay even on the baseline? • Placement of diacritics – How are the t’s crossed and the I’s dotted?

6. Magnification • Often investigators will use copy machine to magnify particular letters and subgroups • This allows a transparency overlay for individual features • Can be tricky because scale must be maintained

7. Procedure for Murder at SHRP Use the magnifying glass to determine who wrote the threat • Select a single sample of a suspect’s handwriting and the note found with victim 1. • Observe the general slant to the words in the note. Compare to the writing samples on the rap sheets. • Select an individual letter in sample and compare it to a letter in the note in a similar position. In other words, compare an “s” at the end of a word in a note to an “s” in the sample. • Perform similar comparisons of each suspect’s handwriting with note. • Select another letter or group of letters for comparison. For example, compare “nd” in the note with an “nd” in an individual’s writing sample. • Continue the comparisons until you have enough information to make a hypothesis of who wrote the note.

8. Practice Activity • Each student in your group should quickly write the following and place it in a pile. “Forensic handwriting analysis is as easy as 1, 2, 3. Anyone could see.” and sign your name. • Then write “I think I get it, this is stupid” and sign it “Mr. Stokes” and shuffle these face down • Select from the second group and compare to the samples to see who forged Mr. Stokes ’s name