COMPARISON OF HANDWRITING CHARACTERISTICS, PART 2

• NCJ Number: 59476
• Author(s): A R ALLEN; E F PEARSON
• Date Published: 1978
• Length: 0 pages
• Corporate Author: Great Britain Home Office Central Research Establishment
• Sale Source: National Institute of Justice/

Annotation

THIS ANALYSIS OF HANDWRITING SPECIMENS USES A SUBJECTIVE CLASSIFICATION OF A PARTICULAR CHARACTERISTIC FOLLOWED BY A COMPUTER ASSESSMENT OF THE CLASSIFIED HANDWRITING SPECIMENS.

Abstract

PART I OF THIS WORK (ALLEN, PEARSON, AND BROWN, 1978) SHOWED THAT, WHEN COMPARING HANDWRITING SPECIMENS USING OBJECTIVE MEASUREMENT, IT WAS OFTEN POSSIBLE TO RETRIEVE SPECIMENS OF A SAME PERSON'S HANDWRITING FROM A COLLECTION OF 280 SPECIMENS SUBMITTED BY 52 PEOPLE. TO INCREASE THE EFFICIENCY OF RETRIEVAL, ADDITIONAL PARAMETERS WERE CONSIDERED. ONE OF THESE INVOLVED A SUBJECTIVE CLASSIFICATION OF A PARTICULAR CHARACTERISTIC (THE RESULTS OF THE SUBJECTIVE CLASSIFICATION OF THE UPPER CASE LETTER D ARE PRESENTED HERE.) A TOTAL OF 230 SPECIMENS WERE EXAMINED AND A TABLE WAS CONSTRUCTED ENCOMPASSING ALL ALL THE VARIOUS STYLES OF THE LETTER D ENCOUNTERED. THIS TABLE WAS THEN USED TO CLASSIFY AND INDEX THE LETTER D IN EACH SPECIMEN BY GRADUATION OF WIDTH, BODY THICKNESS, AND FORMATION. A COMPUTER PROGRAM DESIGNED TO COMPARE THE VALUES OBTAINED FOR THE LETTER D YIELDED THESE RESULTS: FOR 20 PERCENT OF THE SPECIMEN COMPARISONS, LESS THAN 5 PERCENT OF THE FILE WAS NEARER TO THE CRIME THAN THE QUESTIONED SPECIMEN, WITH OBJECTIVE COMPARISONS USING 8 MEASUREMENTS, THE CORRESPONDING FIGURE WAS FOUND TO LIE BETWEEN 45 AND 49 PERCENT, INCLUDING DISGUISED SPECIMENS. REFERENCES AND STUDY DATA ARE PROVIDED. (MJW)