1 Document and Handwriting Analysis 2 You will understand: That an expert analyst can individualize...

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Document and Handwriting Analysis

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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.

Objectives

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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.

Objectives, continued

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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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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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History of Forensic History of Forensic Handwriting Analysis 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 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.

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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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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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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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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Everyone’s handwriting shows natural variations. Here are 6 of the 12 major, specific traits.

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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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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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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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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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Types of Forgery

Check fraud

• Forgery

• Counterfeit

• Alterations

Paper money

• Counterfeit

Identity

• Social Security

• Driver’s license

Credit cards

• Theft of card or number

Art—imitation with intent to deceive

• Microscopic examination

• Electromagnetic radiation

• Chemical analysis

Contracts—alterations of contracts, medical records

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Simulated Forgery

Use the handout provided by your teacher for the Simulated Forgery activity.

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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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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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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?

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.

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.

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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.

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 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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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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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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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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Forgery 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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Preventing Check Forgery

These are some methods used to prevent check forgery:

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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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Handwriting 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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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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Paper Chromatography of Ink

Two samples of black ink from two different manufacturers have been characterized using paper chromatography.

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

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PaperDifferences

Raw material

Weight

Density

Thickness

Color

Watermarks

Age

Fluorescence

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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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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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Counterfeiting Counterfeiting

Counterfeiting money is a crime stretching back into ancient times. Items most often forged today include: • currency • traveler’s checks • food stamps • certain bonds • postage stamps

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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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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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Verifying Authentic Currency

Some features found in the new series bills:

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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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Internet Crimes

Computer intrusions

Identity theft

Transmission of illegal items

Extortion and harassment

Piracy

Cyberterrorism

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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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. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Summary. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 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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