Forensics Part 3: Handwriting Analysis

History of Handwriting Analysis

1. Handwriting is a very personal and individual trademark of a person seeing how no two people have the exact same handwriting
2. 2,000 years ago Aristotle realized there was a correlation between a person’s handwriting to their personality
3. Around the same time the Chinese made the observation that there was a connection between some ones character and writing
4. In 1622 an Italian physician and professor published a book describing the analysis of character through the analysis of handwriting
5. Handwriting analysis was renamed graphology in the late 1800’s by Abbe Michon
6. Alfred Binet, confirmed that handwriting traits revealed actual character traits
7. http://graphicinsight.co.za/background.htm

List of Handwriting Characteristics
1. Line quality. Are the pen marks smooth and free flowing or shaky and wavering? This can be connected to the speed that the document was written at.

2. Spacing of words and letters. What is it the spacing between letters and words? Is it consistent?

3. Ratio of the relative height, width and size of letters. What is the ratio? Is it consistent?

4. Pen lifts and separations. Does the person stop to form new letters and begin words? Forgeries may have lifts in unusual places.

5. Connecting strokes. Are capitals connected to lowercase letters and are there connecting strokes between letters and words?

6. Beginning and ending strokes. Are these straight, curled, long or short, an upstroke or a down stroke?

7. Unusual letter formation. Are there any unusually formed letters such as backward, letters with a tail, or unusual capitals?

8. Shading or pen pressure. Is the pen pressure on the upward or the downward strokes?

9. Slant. Is slant left or right or straight up and down? Is there consistency between the slants of letters?

10.  Baseline habits. Is the writing above or below a line?

11.  Flourishes and embellishments. Are there any? If so what are they?

12.  Diacritic placement. How the t’s and i’s have crossed? Take note of the dotting of i’s, j’s. For example are the dots to the right or left of the letter?
13. http://www.clt.uwa.edu.au/__data/page/112506/fsp10_handwriting.pdf




Picture and Analysis of Handwriting template.
State how the free handing forgery and tracing forgery differ using the 12 handwriting characteristics. In other words, how would you tell that they are forgeries?

1. Freehand forgery is easy to identify because it wont have the same dotted i’s or crossed t’s and it can also have more space between letters and different angle of the letters
2. Traced forgeries can be a little more difficult to identify because it will have the same attributes of the real signature or handwriting. You can identify traced forgeries because how hard the forger wrote by the indentations

Which do you think is easier as a forgery technique: free handwriting or tracing?

1. For me tracing would be easier because I have awful handwriting and if I did freehand it would show that it is my handwriting but if I traced I would have a better chance with getting away with a crime

Reflection on the check forgery Activity? Did your group identify proper person/persons who did the forgeries? Which characteristics were the most distinguishing in your analysis?

1. In this activity we made a fake check with an alias and rip it up. We then gave them to another group and try to let them figure out who the check actually belongs to
2. In our group we correctly identified the other groups checks. There were two people with multiple checks and with the help of the trace and freehand forgery template we correctly identified which check belonged to one person

Famous Case that uses Handwriting Analysis

1. Ted Bundy was a serial killer that stalked and killed 36 college women and diagnosed with personality disorder
2. Using his handwriting analysists were able to determine whether or not Bundy showed any signs of being a serial killer
3. Two writing samples were taken from Ted were analysed and proved that he had a personality disorder but his writing showed that he was thoughtful and full of simplicity which made people think that he wasn’t a murderer
4. Later they found that he did commit all the crime that he was charged of and they out him in jail
5. https://docs.google.com/document/d/1q9jlP0R2SwrXH9iPbMqrw5SCSJl_Tx5r_mbG_R5T89k/edit?hl=en_US