Forensic Document Examiners’ Skill in Distinguishing Between Natural and Disguised Handwriting Behaviors |
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| Authors: | Carolyne Bird BSc Bryan Found PhD Doug Rogers PhD |
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| Institution: | 1. Handwriting Analysis and Research Laboratory, School of Human Biosciences, La Trobe University, Bundoora, Victoria 3086, Australia.;2. Document Examination Section, Chemistry and Materials Group, Forensic Science SA, 21 Divett Place, Adelaide, South Australia 5000, Australia.;3. Document Examination Unit, Digital and Document Evidence Branch, Victoria Police Forensic Services Centre, Macleod, Victoria 3085, Australia. |
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| Abstract: | Abstract: Disguised handwriting is problematic for forensic document examiners (FDEs) and attracts higher misleading and inconclusive rates on authorship opinions than does genuine writing (Found B, Rogers D, International Graphonomics Society, 2005). There are currently no published empirical data on FDEs’ expertise in distinguishing between natural and disguised writing behavior. This paper reports on the skill of FDEs for determining the writing process of 140 pairs of natural and disguised writings and compares their results with those of a control group of laypeople. A significant difference was found between the examiner and lay group. FDEs’ expertise is characterized by their conservatism, where FDEs express a higher proportion of inconclusive opinions (23.1% for FDEs compared to 8.4% for the control group). This leads to the FDEs expressing a smaller percentage of misleading responses when calling writings as either naturally written or disguised (4.3% for FDEs compared with 12.2% for the control group). |
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| Keywords: | forensic science questioned document examination forensic handwriting examination handwriting validation disguise |
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