Handwriting Analysis

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• Handwriting Analysis
• Part 2

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Characteristics
Handwriting experts generally look at 12
characteristics of a persons writing. They
try and compare a sample of the suspects writing
to a known original.
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Forensic Document Examiner

• Characterists a forensic scientist looks for when
  he is trying to identify handwriting
• Ornamentation
• Look for dots on is and crosses on ts
• Look for punctuation
• Look at grammar and spelling
• Look at os

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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 ts crossed
  and the Is dotted?

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Forensic lab Click on this!

• http//www.qdewill.com/labtour.htm

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Forensic Document Examinerbasic measuring tools

• metric rulers, calipers for fine measurements and
  various glass alignment plates which allow
  comparison and measurement of angles, height,
  width and spacing of handwriting and typewriting.

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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

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A type of microscope that is particularly useful
in document examination is the comparison
microscope. Two documents can be viewed
side-by-side and the images can be positioned so
that they appear to overlay each other.
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• The computer is a tool in doing examinations and
  presenting evidence. For example, scanning in
  documents and cautious use of image processing
  software offers the potential to differentiate
  between inks and reveal obscured writing.

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For the first image, a photograph of the original
document (the original was on file in the
courthouse and could not be removed from that
location) was scanned in and cropped to the area
in question. In the second image the contrast and
brightness have been adjusted to give a clearer
view of the area. In the third through sixth
images the heavy inking that was used to obscure
the original writing is gradually "removed" to
reveal the "2". In this case, the ink or inks all
appeared black and could not be separated with
filtering, but the "2" could be seen under a
microscope.
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On first glance the forgery is quite a good copy.
Original
Forgery
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Lets take a closer look!
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Line quality
Are the lines smooth or shaky?
Original
Forgery
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Spacing - words and letters
Is the spacing size consistent?
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Ratio - height, width, size
Are the letters consistent in shape size?
Original
Forgery
16
Pen lifts and separation
Are the pen lifts consistent?
Original
Forgery
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Connecting strokes
Compare how letters are linked.
Original
Forgery
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Beginning and ending strokes
Are the strokes straight, curled, long?
Original
Forgery
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Unusual letter formation
Unusual letters - letters written backwards,
tails
Original
Forgery
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Shading or pen pressure
Differences in shading differences in pen
pressure
Original
Forgery
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Slant
Is the slant or angle of the letters
consistent?
Original
Forgery
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Baseline habits
Original
Does the writing go below the line? There is a
tendency for the top author (original) to write
above the line while the forgery tends to be on
the line.
Forgery
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Flourishes and embellishments
Any fancy letters?
Original
Forgery
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Diacritic placement - cross i, dot t
Is the line on the t in proportion? Are the
is dotted left or right?
Original
The i dot and t cross tend to the right of the
letter.
Forgery
The i dot is varied. The t cross is even. The
form of the letter t is wider at the base.
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Class 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