Handwriting Analysis CSI UMMC

Uses of Handwriting Analysis ► Determine identity of writer  In ransom notes  In document forgery  In death threats  In suicide notes  Can you think of others?

Comparisons Are Useful Because ► No two people have identical handwriting ► By adulthood, it is exclusive to an individual ► Even disguised handwriting will exhibit some of the person’s individual characteristics

Standard Comparisons ► Include sample to be analyzed ► Samples from individual  Collected writing comes from prior to the beginning of the investigation (helps prevent or indicate when a person is disguising their handwriting)  Requested writing is a dictated text using the same type of paper and ink as the sample to be analyzed

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 t’s crossed and the I’s dotted?

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

Procedure for Murder at SHRP Use the magnifying glass to determine who wrote the threat ► Select a single sample of a suspect’s handwriting and the note found with victim 1. ► Observe the general slant to the words in the note. Compare to the writing samples on the rap sheets. ► Select an individual letter in sample and compare it to a letter in the note in a similar position. In other words, compare an “s” at the end of a word in a note to an “s” in the sample. ► Perform similar comparisons of each suspect’s handwriting with note. ► Select another letter or group of letters for comparison. For example, compare “nd” in the note with an “nd” in an individual’s writing sample. ► Continue the comparisons until you have enough information to make a hypothesis of who wrote the note.

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 “Mr. Stokes” and shuffle these face down ► Select from the second group and compare to the samples to see who forged Mr. Stokes ’s name