NCJ Number
85830
Date Published
1981
Length
127 pages
Annotation
This book describes the techniques employed in civil and criminal cases to examine questioned documents, including suspected forgeries. The information is geared toward examiners, attorneys, judges, and jurors.
Abstract
When comparing written names, the basic preliminary examination can, in most cases, provide a clue as to whether the signature is forged. Several copies of the genuine signature must be obtained for comparison purposes. In the basic examination, the document examiner is looking for patterns, and the amount of space provided for the signature must be considered. Tools needed to conduct the examination include a magnifying glass, tracing paper, fine pen or pencil, millimeter ruler, adding machine, and ordinary writing paper. The top-of-the-letter pattern, bottom-of-the-letter pattern, space pattern, and slant must be evaluated. Letters should then be compared individually and strokes examined for irregularities. A questioned document worksheet should then be prepared and such irregularities as broken strokes, odd marks, corrugations, pen lifts, mixed slants, and ill-formed letters noted. The final conclusion on any forgery or questioned document is based on individual habit patterns, and habit patterns can manifest themselves in every aspect of writing. All possible methods of analysis must be employed to provide conclusive proof of the examiner's conclusions. Numerous illustrations, an eight-entry bibliography, and an index are included; an example of technique usage and instructions are appended.