Handwriting Analysis Part 2 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. 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 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? Forensic lab: Click on this! Forensic Document Examiner basic measuring tools o 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. 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 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. 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. 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. On first glance the forgery is quite a good copy. Original Forgery Lets take a closer look! Line quality Are the lines smooth or shaky? Original Forgery Spacing - words and letters Is the spacing size consistent? Ratio - height, width, size Original Forgery Are the letters consistent in shape & size? Pen lifts and separation Are the pen lifts consistent? Original Forgery Connecting strokes Compare how letters are linked. Original Forgery Beginning and ending strokes Are the strokes straight, curled, long? Original Forgery Unusual letter formation Unusual letters - letters written backwards, tails OriginalForgery Shading or pen pressure Differences in shading = differences in pen pressure Original Forgery Slant Is the slant or angle of the letters consistent? Original Forgery Baseline habits 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. Original Forgery Flourishes and embellishments Any fancy letters? Original Forgery Diacritic placement - cross i, dot t Is the line on the t in proportion? Are the is dotted left or right? Original Forgery The i dot and t cross tend to the right of the letter. The i dot is varied. The t cross is even. The form of the letter t is wider at the base. 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 Mrs. Torres and shuffle these face down Select from the second group and compare to the samples to see who forged Mrs. Torres name