Forensic Science Documentation

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. 3

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

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In the 1930s, handwriting analysis played a role in the famous Lindbergh case.

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In 1999, the United States Court of Appeals determined that handwriting analysis qualified as a form of expert testimony.

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To be admissible in court, however, scientifically accepted guidelines must be followed.

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Handwriting analysis has been used by Scotland Yard, the FBI, and the Secret Service. 6

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. 7

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? 19

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? 20

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). 23

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) 24

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

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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 28

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. 29

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: • • • • •

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. 38

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 •

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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. 40

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. 43