NCJ Number
191465
Journal
Journal of Forensic Sciences Volume: 46 Issue: 4 Dated: July 2001 Pages: 884-888
Editor(s)
Michael A. Peat Ph.D.
Date Published
July 2001
Length
5 pages
Annotation
This study compared the abilities of forensic document examiners (FDEs) and laypersons in the area of signature authentication including data comparison criteria, hypotheses tested, and statistical test results.
Abstract
The authentication of legitimate signatures and the detection of simulations, transfers, and other misrepresented attempts are performed through the process of forensic signature examination. This controlled study compared the abilities of forensic document examiners (FDEs) and laypersons specifically targeting the area of signature authentication. The same signature-authentication/simulation-detection task was given to both FDEs and laypersons. Six known signatures generated by the same person were compared with six unknown signatures. To motivate the laypersons, three different monetary incentive schemes were implemented. Results found that through a signature authentication task, data generated by FDEs were statistically different from data generated by laypersons. The error rates of FDEs were much lower than those of laypersons. The results indicated the superiority of FDEs over laypersons in signature authentication. It was seen that monetary incentives for laypersons alone, without training and practice, could not induce them to perform well as forensic document examiners. Tables and references