Document and
Handwriting Analysis
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Document and
Handwriting Analysis
Objectives
You will understand:
That an expert analyst can individualize
handwriting to a particular person.
What types of evidence are submitted to
the document analyst.
Three types of forgery.
How to characterize different types of
paper.
The types and impact of computer crime.
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Document and
Handwriting Analysis
Objectives, continued
You will be able to:
Analyze handwriting using 12 points of
analysis.
Detect deliberately disguised
handwriting.
Detect erasures and develop
impression writing.
Design an experiment using paper
chromatography to determine which
pen altered a note.
List safeguards against the
counterfeiting of U.S. currency.
Recognize some of the methods of
internet fraud.
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Document and
Handwriting Analysis
Questioned Documents
Involves the examination of handwriting, ink, paper, etc., to
ascertain source or authenticity
Examples include letters, checks, licenses, contracts, wills,
passports
Investigations include verification; authentication;
characterizing papers, pigments, and inks
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Document and
Handwriting Analysis
Related Fields
Historical dating—the verification of age and value of a document or
object
Fraud investigation—focuses on the money trail and criminal intent
Paper and ink specialists—date, type, source, and/or catalog various
types of paper, watermarks, ink, printing/copy/fax machines,
computer cartridges
Forgery specialists—analyze altered, obliterated, changed, or doctored
documents and photos
Typewriting analysts—determine origin, make, and model
Computer crime investigators—investigate cybercrime
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Document and
Handwriting Analysis
History of Forensic
Handwriting Analysis
•
In the 1930s, handwriting analysis played a role in the
famous Lindbergh case.
•
In 1999, the United States Court of Appeals
determined that handwriting analysis qualified as a
form of expert testimony.
•
To be admissible in court, however, scientifically
accepted guidelines must be followed.
•
Handwriting analysis has been used by Scotland Yard,
the FBI, and the Secret Service.
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Document and
Handwriting Analysis
Document Examination
Forensic document examination involves the analysis and
comparison of questioned documents with known material in
order to identify, whenever possible, the author or origin of the
questioned document.
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

Experts in the field
investigate such things as
handwriting, computer
printouts, commercial
printing, paper, and ink.
They may study threatening,
ransom, or suicide notes.
Their work can help identify
a document’s author.
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Document and
Handwriting Analysis
Handwriting
Handwriting analysis involves two phases:
1. The hardware—ink, paper, pens, pencils, typewriter,
printers
2. Visual examination of the writing
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Document and
Handwriting Analysis
Handwriting Characteristics
Line quality
Word and letter spacing
Letter comparison
Pen lifts
Connecting strokes
Beginning and ending strokes
Unusual letter formation
Shading or pen pressure
Slant
Baseline habits
Flourishes or embellishments
Diacritic placement
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Document and
Handwriting Analysis
Analyze your own handwriting
Look at a long piece of your
own writing. Use the criteria
described and comment on
each of the 12 characteristics
of the handwriting.
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Document and
Handwriting Analysis
Everyone’s handwriting shows natural
variations. Here are 6 of the 12 major,
specific traits.
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Document and
Handwriting Analysis
The traits are functions of formatting or of
letter or line form. Here are the other 6 of the
12 major, specific traits.
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Document and
Handwriting Analysis
Handwriting Identification
Analysis of the known writing with a determination of the characteristics
found in the known
Analysis of the questioned or unknown writing and determination of its
characteristics
Comparison of the questioned writing with the known writing
Evaluation of the evidence, including the similarities and dissimilarities
between the questioned and known writing
The document examiner must have enough exemplars to make a
determination of whether or not the two samples match.
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Document and
Handwriting Analysis
Handwriting Samples
The subject should not be shown the questioned document.
The subject is not told how to spell words or use punctuation.
The subject should use materials similar to those of the document.
The dictated text should match some parts of the document.
The subject should be asked to sign the text.
Always have a witness.
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Document and
Handwriting Analysis
Detecting Deliberately
Disguised Handwriting
Activity
1. Use the directions provided by your teacher for this
activity.
2. Your teacher will separate the originals from the disguised
writing pieces.
3. Your task is to match each of the disguised writings with
the source of the original writings.
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Document and
Handwriting Analysis
Types of Forgery
Check fraud
• Forgery
Credit cards
• Theft of card or number
• Counterfeit
Art—imitation with intent to deceive
• Alterations
• Microscopic examination
Paper money
• Counterfeit
Identity
• Social Security
• Electromagnetic radiation
• Chemical analysis
Contracts—alterations of contracts,
medical records
• Driver’s license
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Document and
Handwriting Analysis
Simulated Forgery
Use the handout provided by your
teacher for the Simulated Forgery
activity.
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Document and
Handwriting Analysis
Methods of Forgery
Simulated forgery—one made by copying a genuine signature
Traced forgery—one made by tracing a genuine signature
Blind forgery—one made without a model of the signature
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Document and
Handwriting Analysis
Blind, Simulated, and Traced
Forgery
1. In your Field Notebook, ask your lab partner to write this
sentence: "Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice
everywhere." Sign it MLK, Jr. Plagiarism is a form of forgery and, as
such, is illegal!
2. Now you copy their writing using:
a)
Blind Forgery
b) Simulated Forgery
c)
Traced Forgery (tape the piece of tracing paper in the field notebook).
3. Examine your results.
4. What would a document examiner look for in these signatures
if he or she suspected fraud?
5. Which method worked best for you?
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Document and
Handwriting Analysis
To use the letter angle
template, put the
transparency over the
first individual letter in
signature 1. Move the
scale from right to left
until you can center
your letter in one of the
boxes. Read the scale
above the box that best
parallels your letter.
Write the degree above
the letter. Move the
template to the next
letter and measure the
slant degree. Write the
degree above the letter.
Continue until you have
measured all letters in
all four of your
signatures.
Analysis of
Handwriting Using a
Letter Angle Template
Use the directions provided by your teacher for this
activity.
1. Write your signature four times in your notebook.
2. Use the letter angle template to measure as directed.
3. Answer the Questions in your notebook.
1. Do the angles match on all of your letters?
2. Give the range of degrees that your slant varies.
3. Is the angle of the first letter of your last name
the same for all four signatures?
4. Do any of the letters have the same angle in all
four signatures? Which ones?
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Document and
Handwriting Analysis
Analysis of the Tops and
Bottoms of Letters Activity
1. Use the directions provided by your teacher for this activity.
2. Compare the zigzag lines. Comment on the similarities and
differences. Do this for both the Top and Bottom portions.
3. Attach your tracing paper in your notebook.
Write your signature four times.
Place a piece of tracing paper over your signature. Make a small mark on the paper at all of the high
points of each letter in each signature. For example, the letter M has three points: one above the first
vertical line, one above the first hump, and one above the second hump. Using a ruler, join each mark
to the one next to it, creating a zigzag line across the top of each signature. Compare the zigzag lines.
Note the similarities and differences.
Using the same four signatures above, make a small mark on the tracing paper at all of the low points
of each letter in each signature. Using a ruler, join each mark to the one next to it, creating a zigzag
line across the bottom of each signature.
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Document and
Handwriting Analysis
Document Alterations
Obliterations—removal of writing by physical or chemical
means can be detected by:
• Microscopic examination
• UV or infrared (IR) light
• Digital image processing
Indentations can be detected by:
• Oblique lighting
• Electrostatic detection apparatus (ESDA)
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Document and
Handwriting Analysis
Finding Erasures and
Indentations Activity
1. Use the directions provided by your teacher for this
activity.
2. Examine the erasures in a darkened area with a UV light.
Can you see where you erased your writing? Record
observations for each type of paper.
3. Put the papers in a beaker with a few crystals of iodine.
Cover the beaker, wait a few minutes, and note any
evidence of erasures. Record observations.
4. Repeat activity with writing impressions (those blank
pages found under primary writing done on a pad).
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Document and
Handwriting Analysis
Famous Forgers and Forgeries
Major George Byron (Lord Byron forgeries)
Thomas Chatterton (literary forgeries)
John Payne Collier (printed forgeries)
Dorman David (Texas Declaration of Independence)
Mark Hofmann (Mormon, Freemason forgeries)
William Henry Ireland (Shakespeare forgeries)
Clifford Irving (Howard Hughes forgery)
Konrad Kujau (Hitler diaries)
James Macpherson (Ossian manuscript)
George Psalmanasar (literary forgery)
Alexander Howland Smith (historical documents)
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Document and
Handwriting Analysis
Forensic Linguist
Expert who looks at the linguistic content (the way something is
written) of a questioned document
Language that is used can help to establish the writer’s age,
gender, ethnicity, level of education, professional training,
and ideology.
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Document and
Handwriting Analysis
Forgery
•
•
•
Forged documents can include such things as checks,
employment records, legal agreements, licenses, and
wills.
Fraudulence is forgery done for material gain.
Check forgery can include:
ordering another’s checks from a deposit slip.
altering a check.
intercepting another’s check, altering, and
cashing it.
• creating a check from scratch.
•
•
•
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Document and
Handwriting Analysis
Preventing Check Forgery
These are some methods used to prevent check
forgery:
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Document and
Handwriting Analysis
Literary Forgery
1. Letters or other documents written by famous
people can be very valuable.
2. The best literary forgers aim to duplicate the
original document by using materials similar to
those used for the original:
• old paper
• chemically treated materials to fake an older look
• inks mixed from substances that would have been
used at the time
• watermarks that add the appearance of age
• tools and styles that would have been popular at
the time
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Document and
Handwriting Analysis
Handwriting
Evidence in the Courtroom
• The expert shows how comparisons were made.
• The defense attorney likely will cross-examine the
handwriting expert.
Shortcomings in Analysis
• A particular piece of handwriting can be different from its
usual style because of factors such as fatigue.
• Experts can miss details.
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Document and
Handwriting Analysis
Ink
Chromatography is a method of physically separating the
components of inks.
Types
HPLC—high-performance liquid chromatography
TLC—thin-layer chromatography
Paper chromatography
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Document and
Handwriting Analysis
Paper Chromatography of Ink
Two samples of black ink from
two different manufacturers
have been characterized
using paper
chromatography.
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Document and
Handwriting analysis
Retention Factor (Rf)
A number that represents how far a
compound travels in a particular
solvent
It is determined by measuring the
distance the compound traveled
and dividing it by the distance the
solvent traveled.
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Document and
Handwriting Analysis
Paper
Differences
Raw material
Weight
Density
Thickness
Color
Watermarks
Age
Fluorescence
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Document and
Handwriting Analysis
Pencils
Lead
Hardness scale—a traditional measure of the hardness of the “leads”
(actually made of graphite) in pencils. The hardness scale, from softer
to harder, takes the form ..., 3B, 2B, B, HB, F, H, 2H, 3H, 4H, ..., with
the standard “number 2” pencil being of hardness 2H.
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Document and
Handwriting Analysis
Evidence
Class characteristics may include general types of pens, pencils, or
paper.
Individual characteristics may include unique, individual handwriting
characteristics; trash marks from copiers; or printer serial numbers.
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Document and
Handwriting Analysis
Counterfeiting
Counterfeiting money is a crime stretching
back into ancient times. Items most often
forged today include:
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•
•
•
•
currency
traveler’s checks
food stamps
certain bonds
postage stamps
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Document and
Handwriting Analysis
Counterfeiting
In 1996 the government starting adding new security features to our
paper money due to the advanced copying technologies that have
raised the incidence of counterfeiting. The $20 bill entered circulation
on October of 2003, followed by the $50 in September of 2004, and
then the $10 in September of 2005. Subtle background colors have
been added along with other features to discourage counterfeiting.
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Document and
Handwriting Analysis
Counterfeit
Currency
•
The Secret Service has worked with electronics
and software makers to add security features to
paper currency that makes forgery extremely
difficult.
• Scanning cannot reproduce these security
features.
• The first security feature is the feel of the paper.
• Regular printer paper contains starch. Paper
bills contain rag fiber instead of starch.
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Document and
Handwriting Analysis
Verifying
Authentic Currency
Some features found in
the new series bills:
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Document and
Handwriting Analysis
Technology Used in Handwriting
Analysis
Biometric Signature Pads
•
•
This computerized pad “learns” to recognize how a person
signs his or her name based on the speed, pressure, and
rhythm of the signing.
Forgeries then are recognized by the detection of even slight
differences.
Computerized Analysis of Handwriting
•
•
Computers can make objective comparisons between
handwritings.
Suspect signatures can be compared with ones stored in
databases.
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Document and
Handwriting Analysis
Internet Crimes
Computer intrusions
Identity theft
Transmission of illegal items
Extortion and harassment
Piracy
Cyberterrorism
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Document and
Handwriting Analysis
More about Document Analysis
For additional information about document and handwriting analysis,
check out truTV’s Crime Library at:
www.crimelibrary.com/criminal_mind/forensics/literary/1.htm
Or learn about forgery cases at:
www.crimelibrary.com/criminal_mind/scams/lincoln_forgers/index.
html
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Document and
Handwriting Analysis
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Summary
• Handwriting analysis compares questioned
documents with exemplars to establish
authorship.
• Aspects of a person’s handwriting style can
be analyzed to accomplish that.
• Many new features of paper currency help
prevent counterfeiting.
• Technological advances have enhanced
chances of detecting forged documents.
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