Questioned Documents

What is a Questioned
Document?
A questioned document is one in
which a document in its entirety, or
in part, is subject to question as to
authenticity and/or origin.
Any signature, handwriting,
typewriting, or other marks whose
source or authenticity is in dispute or
is doubtful.
 Most Common Questioned
Documents
Letters Voter registration
Checks Passports
Drivers Licenses Petitions
Contracts Threatening
letters
Wills
Suicide notes
Lottery tickets
 Cases Involving Questioned
Documents
Forgery Art crimes
Counterfeiting Theft
Mail fraud Robbery
Arson
Kidnapping
Burglary
Con games
Homicide
Embezzlement
Serial murder
Gambling Psychological profiling
Organized crime Deviant sex crimes
White collar crime
Questioned Document History
Turn of century, lifestyles changed
from rural to urban.
Allowed for more opportunities in
education.
With education and advances in ink,
became more of a paper society.
Instead of the exchange of money
and handshake it became the
exchange of money and a signature.
Questioned Document History
Need grew for people that could
distinguish the authenticity of a
document.
Attorneys would look toward penman for
help in these cases.
They testified that they could tell the
difference in handwriting.
Accepted in court because they used
scientific methods. (example: side by
side comparison)
 Questioned Document History
Dreyfus case, setback the discipline.
Alfred Dreyfus, French army officer, accused of
treason through letters found attempting to sell
French secrets to Germany.
Later found that Dreyfus did not write the
letters.
Albert Osborn, American handwriting
expert, noticed that there needed to be a
basis of handwriting knowledge.
Did this through inviting penman, throughout
the country, to share their experiences and
expertise in handwriting cases.
 Questioned Document History
Osborn is considered the pioneer of the
question document field because he
published a book, Questioned Documents.
Widely excepted because of his extensive use of
scientific techniques.
Albert Osborn and Lindbergh Baby Case
Result of his work and national attention, the
QD field was included in many Federal and
State Agencies.
Now called Questioned Document Examiners
 Graphologist VS QD
Examiner
Graphologist
Profiles character or personality by drawing
conclusions from certain types of
characteristics in the handwriting sample.
They do not compare handwriting to determine
authenticity or origin. Remember, most of
graphology lack scientific proof.
On the other hand, some of the principles of
graphology are correct like:
Handwriting can be effected by illness, old age, etc
Have many different systems of graphology.
Graphology Examples
 Question Document
Examiner
Studies scientifically the whole
document in order to recognize the
source or other evidence that can
determine authenticity of the
document in question.
The first QDE where called
handwriting specialists because
that was the primary means of
agreements or contracts.
 Handwriting Theory
Handwriting is just as unique as your
fingerprints.
Difference between fingerprint and
handwriting
Fingerprints are permanent and do not change
Handwriting is a learning process and lends
itself to change as a normal process
 The Learning Process
Child is taught using the model of alphabet
Manuscript Writing
Cursive Writing
Child does not have handwriting of his own
because he is creating an artistic representation
Child gets better at remembering letter
formations and now draws them from
memory
This is where variations and deviations come
from and he/she begins their own handwriting.
 The Learning Process
Its not until individual characteristics
become habitual and repetitious that
handwriting has become mature.
When the person can write as a sub-
conscious act.
This is where we can make the comparison
from fingerprint to handwriting.
Just as there are no 2 fingerprints the same,
handwriting is also unique.
 Class Characteristic in
Handwriting
Class Characteristics are similarities
between individuals who learned the
same type of writing systems.
Serve just to narrow down the search
when comparing a questioned
document to standard writing
systems.
Handwriting systems: Palmer, Zaner-Bloser,
and Spencerian
 Individual Characteristics
These are characteristics that are
true only to a specific writer.
It is a combination of individual
characteristics that make
handwriting unique to him/her.
 Types of Individual
Characteristics
Skill Level Baseline Alignment
Slant Pen Lifts
Form Speed
Movement Embellishments
Proportions Entry/Exit Strokes
Height Retracing
I Dot Spelling/Spacing
t Crossing Format
Loops Case
Pressure
 Skill level
The way a writing looks.
Important characteristic of
identification or non-identification.
High skill level VS Low skill level
High Skill Level
Low Skill Level
 Slant
This is the angle of writing and can
be forward or backward.
This alone is not a good basis for
judgment.
Forwards and backward slants are
not indicative to handedness.
 Form
Most basic individual characteristic
and is very important to QDE.
Form is the way a writer makes a
letter or movement of letters.
 Movement and Pressure
Movement is the way a pen moves in order to make
a mark or form a letter
This can help distinguish the difference in form. 2
letters can be the same, but made in a different way.
Pressure is the difference in ink or pencil in width or
shade. Helps show direction of movement.
 Proportions, Height, & Loops
Proportions is the
symmetry of an
individual letter
Loops are similar to
proportions
Height is the
comparing the height
of one letter to
another
Height, proportions are
usually habits found in
a specific writer.
The I dot and t crossing
 Baseline Alignment
The value of this show the questioned writing
in correlation to the baseline
Helps QDE examiners determine whether the
writing was altered or is consistent with the
rest of the writing or other examples
 Pen Lifts and
Embellishments
Pen lifts are when Embellishments
the pen or pencil is decorate writing.
lifted from the Usually found in
paper and the beginning of
reapplied to finish word, but can be
a word or sentence. seen other places.
Most people have
pen lifts that are
likely in their
writing.
 Speed
The speed of a writer is a key indicator for
QDE in the examination process.
Fast and slow speeds are difficult to duplicate
leaving behind inconsistencies in the writing.
 Entry/Exit Strokes
Entry/Exit Strokes is the way a writer
begins certain letter or words and
can be very specific to an individual.
Also includes the idea of connecting
stokes.
 Retracing
Retracing is considered fixing a
portion of writing that is not readable
or pleasing to the writer.
In some cases, this can indicate
forgery but is very common in
normal handwriting to retrace letters
or words.
 Spelling/Spacing
Spelling is an individual characteristic
because of education or habits and can
be an easy fix to eliminate or pin point
suspects.
Spacing is the area between letters or
words and is usually specific to the
writer.
 Format and Case
Format is the habit in which a writer
uses to depict simple things like;
Dates, numbers, abbreviations, etc
Example: The way people write checks
Case is a characteristic of a writer
who might use upper case letters
where a lower case should be
present.
 Collecting Questioned
Documents
Original document is preferred
QDE would rather not have a copy, but can still use
them.
All evidence should be marked by the QDE.
Usually, initial and date.
If document cannot be marked it should be placed
in enveloped and sealed with initial and date.
Maintain chain of custody.
And of course, DOCUMENT DOCUMENT
DOCUMENT!
 Character of Handwriting
No single handwriting characteristic can in
itself be taken as the basis for a positive
comparison.
The final conclusion must be based on a
sufficient number of common
characteristics between the known and
questioned writing samples.
There are no hard and fast rules for a
sufficient number of personal
characteristics; it is a judgment call made
by the expert examiner in the context of
each case.
 Collecting Samples or
Exemplars
Exemplar Handwriting used as a
standard for comparison with the
document in question.
2 types of exemplars:
Dictated or requested
Undictated or collected
Ink and Paper Comparisons
A study of the chemical composition of the
ink used on documents may verify whether
or not known and questioned documents
were prepared by the same pen; and the
paper itself may be analyzed.
A nondestructive approach to comparing
ink lines is accomplished with a visible-light
microspectrophotometer.
Thin-layer chromatography is also suitable
for ink comparisons.
 Ink Analysis
The U. S. Secret Service has an ink analysis
program and maintains a library of over 6,000 inks.
Handwritten notes as well as printed documents
can be analyzed.
Chemical tests of ink (ink solubility, paper
chromatography and thin layer chromatography)
can be performed on printed or written material.
Samples can be removed up to 10 plugs,
approximately 1 millimeter each, of the paper
containing the printing from the questioned
sections and from control sections.
Thin Layer Chromatography
 Typewriters and Printing
Devices
The two requests most often made of the
examiner in connection with the examination of
typewriters and printing devices are:
whether the make and model of the typewriter and
printing devices used to prepare the questioned
document can be identified.
whether a particular suspect typewriter or printing
device can be identified as having prepared the
questioned document.
In order to do this, the individual type
characters style, shape, and size are compared
to a complete reference collection of past and
present typefaces.
 Characteristics From Use
As is true for any mechanical device, use of a
printing device will result in wear and
damage to the machines moving parts.
These changes will occur in a fashion that is
both random and irregular, thereby
imparting individual characteristics to the
printing device.
The document examiner has to deal with
problems involving business and personal
computers, which often produce typed
copies that have only subtle defects.
Another area of investigation relates to the
typewriter ribbon, which may contain type
impressions.
 Digital Technology
In the cases of photocopiers, fax machines,
and computer printers an examiner may be
called on to identify the make and model of
a machine or to compare a questioned
document with test samples from a suspect
machine.
A side by side comparison is made between
the questioned document and the printed
exemplars to compare markings produced
by the machine.
Examiners compare transitory defect
marks, fax machine headers, toner, toner
application methods, and mechanical and
printing characteristics.
 Alterations
Document examiners must deal with evidence that has
been changed in several ways, such as through
alterations, erasures, and obliterations.
Erasures by rubber erasers, sandpaper, razor blade or
knife to remove writing or typing disturb the fibers of the
paper and are readily apparent when examined with a
microscope.
If an alteration is made to a document with ink differing
form the original, it can sometimes be detected due to
differences in the luminescence properties of the inks.
Obliteration of writing by overwriting or crossing out to
hide the original writing can be revealed by infrared
radiation, which may pass through the upper layer of
writing while being absorbed by the underlying area.
 Types of Examinations
Handwriting Comparisons
Ink Examinations
Indented Writing
Alterations
Paper Analysis
Photocopy Analysis
Typewriting
And other related sections
Instruments Used in QD Lab
Stereo Microscope

Light Microscope

Video Spectral Comparator (VSC)

Electrostatic Detection Apparatus