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HANDWRITING IN FORENSICS

A person's handwriting has long been recognized as a form of human identification. Handwriting, like fingerprints, contains a combination of characteristics. One of the first things the forensic scientist looks for is the way the lines form the letters. He looks at strokes, pressure, slants, heights, loops, letter spacing, proportions, dotted "i's" and crossed "t's" etc. The writing strokes consist of lines and curves in various directions, forming individual letter shapes. Lines can be vertical, horizontal, or diagonal. Curves are loops, circles, or parts of circles. Letter designs are the most easily identifiable feature of handwriting. Forgers copy letter designs while disregarding other characteristics of the writing. Each letter has a distinguishing element that makes it unique. For example, the t has crossbar, the i and j have a dot, and the f is the only lower case cursive letter that spans all three zones of writing because it has both upper loop and a lower loop. The letter p can occupy both zones if the upstroke is added. Connecting strokes joint the letters in words. They are also called ligatures. Letters in a word may be connected or disconnected. Connectors can consist of arches, angles, or thread connections.

When analyzing writing style, the forensic scientist looks at the handwriting in general, much like you would look at a painting. Make mental notes of the most outstanding traits and try to get a general feeling of the writer. Then, determine the emotional energy of the writer. This is the most important factor of the personality of the writer. A forensic scientist also looks to see if people make ornaments such as circles, etc. The scientist also looks at spelling, punctuation, and grammar. Spelling and punctuation cannot be used exclusively to identify handwriting, but they can aid in identification. All of these characteristics are useful in identifying the writing of a letter or a document. The examiner must be cognizant of the differences between "class characteristics" and "individual characteristics". Class characteristics are those which are common to a group such as a particular writing system, family grouping, foreign language system, or professional group. Individual characteristics are those which are personal or peculiar letters or letter combinations, which, taken together, would not occur in the writing of another person. For example, pen scope is the distance the pen covers before the writer moves his or her hand to continue the writing act. It is possible to identify the pen scope by the breaks between letters, syllables, or words. This is one of the factors that can assist in the identification of a particular writer because pen scope is an individual characteristic.

When a forensic scientist suspects a person in a forgery case, one of the first things he does is to get a handwriting sample from that suspect - an exemplar. Usually, the scientist tries to get the suspect to write the same text as the suspected forged document with the same type of writing instrument as the forgery (pencil, ballpoint pen, fountain pen, marker, etc.). If the forensic scientist has enough handwriting samples from the suspect, he can usually determine whether or not the suspect has written certain documents.