Forensic Handwriting Identification: Fundamental Concepts and Principles

By Ron N. Morris

Forensic Handwriting Identification: Fundamental Concepts and Principles teaches the law enforcement and legal communities the major principles involved in handwriting and hand-printing analysis as applied to many types of investigations, including fraud, homicide, suicide, drug trafficking/clandestine labs, sexual offenses, threats and extortion, blackmail, arson, bombings, and theft. Lawyers and investigators will learn how to interpret an examiner’s report, the significance of various handwriting opinions and the influencing factors which must be considered.

• Reviews basic concepts that affect a person’s writing, demonstrates how to obtain handwriting specimens and evidence, and provides the appropriate ASTM and SWIGDOC standards and procedures
• Ideally suited for forensic science and legal professionals, investigators working with document examiners, and law enforcement students and professionals
• Includes model specimen handwriting forms

• Language: English
• Publisher: Academic Press
• Release date: Nov 10, 2020
• ISBN: 9780124104204

Ron N. Morris

Ron Morris is President of Morris & Associates, Inc. Certified by the United States Secret Service Forensic Science Division and the American Board of Forensic Document Examiners; he has worked as an examiner of questioned documents for the Metropolitan Police Department, based in Washington D.C., the United States Secret Service and the U.S. Treasury Department.

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Introduction

Many good books and technical papers have been written about questioned documents and handwriting examination and comparison. A number of them also deal with the various other aspects of Forensic Document Examination (FDE) and include sections on handwriting and handprinting identification as part of their comprehensive coverage.

Several books primarily devoted to handwriting and handprinting examination have been recently published, such as the second edition of Handwriting Identification: Facts and Fundamentals by Roy A. Huber and A.M. Headrick as edited and updated by Heidi H. Harralson, MA, and Larry S. Miller, PhD, both of whom are with the East Tennessee State University. I also recommend The Neuroscience of Handwriting Applications for Forensic Document Examination by Michael P. Caligiuri, PhD, and Linton A. Mohammed, MFS. These two books are among the many references used in this work and are recognized by this author as excellent references about handwriting and handprinting that should be a part of every FDE’s library.

Many technical papers have been written over the years describing the varied characteristics, qualities, and features found in an individual’s handwriting. The knowledge shared assists the FDE in how to evaluate evidence. Frequency of occurrence studies report on the relative commonality of letterform patterns found among the study subjects. Two good examples of these are The Frequency of Round Handwriting in Edmonton, Alberta Schools, by A. Crane (Crane, 1999, pp. 169–174), and a paper entitled Relative Width and Height of Handwritten Letter, by Joseba Lizega Rika and M. Math, published in the Journal of Forensic Science, January 2018, Vol. 63, No. 1. Currently, Mr. Tom Vastrick and his associates have undertaken an ongoing study of handwriting features. Published in the Journal of Forensic Sciences, his papers are a very important asset in assisting the FDE to determine how to weigh the significance of the evidence at hand.

Other technical papers explore the effect of such things as transitory factors affecting a writer and elements of unnatural writing, both deliberate and not deliberate. Some of these include the effects of drugs and alcohol, the physical and emotional illness of a writer, unnatural writing or intentional disguise to avoid detection, and writing with the unaccustomed hand. The Journal of Forensic Sciences, published by the American Academy of Forensic Sciences, and the Journal of the American Society of Questioned Document Examiners are reliable resources for papers on these topics.

In this book the author consolidates basic concepts of the act of writing and how some factors can affect it. Because writing is a learned dynamic activity, the FDE examination considers such things as how a writer holds his pen based on the writing pressure habits and how they move their fingers, hand, and wrist relative to the paper.

The best of all possible worlds would be for the FDE to watch the person write both the questioned material and the standards included in the evidence. Since this is not possible, it is vital that they understand the actual process of writing and can evaluate all the evidence they are examining. The combination of all characteristics, qualities, and features of handwriting comprises the totality of the evidence used by the FDE to reach their conclusion. Any conclusion reached by the FDE must be based on all the evidence within the writing and not on outside factors that may be incorrect or baseless.

Factors discussed in this book and many others influence everyone’s writing. Therefore the FDE should be able to visualize the writer’s movement as the static line progresses from one letterform to the next. Studies in their examination include evaluating pen direction and determining the significance of factors such as the relative relationships between the various parts of individual letters and letter combinations and the influence of writing on paper with or without predrawn baselines. The FDE should also know how writing systems influenced a writer during their formative years and into graphic maturity. Now that handwriting is not being taught in many of our schools, it is yet unknown how individual characteristics will be defined if not by deviation from a certain writing standard. Besides this the effects of the numerous other factors can affect a person’s writing such as illness, the influence of drugs and alcohol, or deliberation.

This book covers many of these subjects and has numerous illustrations to help explain the concepts. Practice is the only way to improve your comparative skills. The reader is encouraged to study in detail every writing they can find and the characteristics, qualities, and features of the text they are examining and then determine the singular and collective significance of each one for comparison purposes.

The book is practical in approach and is designed specifically for the FDE trainee and qualified examiners to understand the basic principles underlying the movement of the writer’s hand, fingers, etc. and how the dynamics of that act of writing influences the resultant pattern of the static line left on the paper or another writing surface. Some of the references mentioned are by those who studied handwriting in detail and shared their findings years ago, as far back as the late 1800 and early 1900. Several of those writers have been named graphologists because they include some of that topic in their works. The author wishes to clarify here that references referred to in this book deal primarily with the actual mechanics of the writing act. No graphological significance is attached to any referenced material or principles in this work. Some of the writers lived and wrote in England and Europe in a time when graphology, the act and art of writing, was believed to reveal something about the writer’s personality or traits. This work in no way is or should be considered a study of graphology or supportive of graphology. The material in this book discusses the act of writing and the principles separating the combined writings of one writer from another. In no way is the author trying to determine the identity of a writer by relying on graphology. The author is not a graphologist who thinks a person’s personality can be determined strictly from their handwriting or handprinting.

Detailed pattern recognition is the beginning process of handwriting identification. Because two or more writings look alike and have the same patterns, they are not necessarily written by the same writer. Two writings that look alike or are virtually identical may be a sign that one of them is a simulation or that the characteristics observed are common to many other writers. To accurately conclude that writings are or are not of common authorship, the FDE must go beyond simple pattern recognition. This book and the principles and examples covered in it should be of great assistance to the reader in learning how to accurately locate and evaluate the characteristics, qualities, and features of writing and how to begin attaching significance to them for comparison purposes.

It takes years of specialized training to become an FDE. Anyone who thinks they can pick up a book like this, read it, and become a FDE after having read it has the wrong impression of the profession. The training required to become a qualified FDE is stated in the Scientific Working Group for Forensic Document Examiners’ (SWGDOC) Standard for Minimum Training Requirements for Forensic Document Examiners. There are no exceptions.

This book has been designed as an aid to trainees and professionals who want to learn more about how a person writes, how to conduct and evaluate handwriting and handprinting, and what to consider during the process of comparison. Remember, writing is a dynamic activity. The writer’s fingers, hand, wrist, and arm can all be in motion—controlled by visual perception and the understanding of how to write each letter, letter combination, and other features. The writer has no doubt about how these features should look and be written.

A master pattern of what should be written exists within all writers, but normal variation in movements occur based on the individual’s ability to write around their master pattern (Harrison, 1966, pp. 298–305). Notwithstanding their perception of how a letter or other characteristic should look, many influences can affect how a person writes and what they write.

The author hopes that the reader will profit from this book and be better able to understand the concepts behind handwriting and handprinting identification. There is one lesson that everyone who conducts examinations and comparisons of handwriting in an attempt to determine authorship should always remember. This lesson was consistently reinforced during my training and even as I practiced what I had learned. That lesson is I will be conservative. I will be conservative. By repeating these words before, during, and after you form a conclusion, these words will reinforce the most basic and essential principle of the FDE’s work. I will be conservative!

References

Crane A.The frequency of round handwriting in Edmonton, Alberta Schools. Can. Soc. Forens. Sci. J. 1999;32(4).

Harrison W.R.Suspect Documents Their Scientific Examination. second ed. 1966 Sweet & Maxwell Ltd, London.

Further reading

Caligiuri M.P., Mohammed L.A. The Neuroscience of Handwriting—Applications for Forensic Document Examination. CRC Press; 2012.

Maarse F.J. The Study of Handwriting Movement: Peripheral Models and Signal Processing Techniques. Berwyn/Lisse: Swets North America Inc./Swets & Zeitlinger B.V.; 1987.

Quirke A.J. Forged, Anonymous, and Suspect Documents. George Routledge & Sons Ltd, London 1930.

Saudek R. Experiments With Handwriting. Sacramento, CA 1978 First Published in Great Britain by George Allen & Unwin.

Chapter 1: The physiology of writing

Abstract

This chapter describes the actual act of writing and those factors that collectively are relied upon by Forensic Document Examiners to determine the identity of the writer. It also deals with how the writer holds the writing instrument, the act of writing or movement of the writing instrument using the fingers, hand, wrist, and arm. The results of these movements, as recorded in the writing, can disclose the habits of the writer if the movements are natural for that writer, or if the writer is altering their normal writing.

Keywords

Handwriting; Writer; System; Penman; Graphic maturity

Handwriting rules of execution

Technically, handwriting is not handwriting; it is brain writing. The images and instructions of what is to be written and the instructions sent to the arm, hand, and fingers to write it originate in the brain. For those who write with their feet, the instructions go to the leg, foot, and toes holding the writing instrument. The writers’ extremities execute the instructions sent to them by the brain and guide their movements to produce the writing. The characteristics, qualities, and features of a letter or combination of letters to be written by the writer, using either his hand or his foot, are best described as the master pattern,a of that letter or letter combination as written by that writer. Harrison uses this descriptive term when he discusses the concept of variation in writing. Variation is a significant concept because the writer is not a machine that exactly reproduces each and every characteristic, quality, and feature of the writing exactly the same way every time they write. The topic and concept of variation is discussed in detail in several different chapters of this book.

In a recently published book entitled, The Neuroscience of Handwriting, Applications for Forensic Document Examination,b the authors explain in detail the function of the brain in the act of writing. They discuss the effects of age, injury, writing surface, drugs, etc., on the resultant writing. In Chapter 1 of their book, Neuroanatomical Bases of Hand Motor Control, the interaction of the brain and writing instrument is described in the section, Motor and Association Cortices, on pages 9–11.

While most people write when holding the writing instrument with their hand and fingers, for any number of reasons, a substantial number of people are not able to write with their hand. They may write while holding the writing instrument using the toes on their foot, even holding it in their mouth, etc. For the purpose of this book, handwriting refers to all writing written by a writer as directed by his brain regardless of whether the writing is done with the arm, hand and fingers, foot and toes, mouth, etc. The concepts presented and discussed throughout the book apply to the act of handwriting in general. While some of the principles discussed here can be found when the writing is done with other than the hand, it is necessary to have known specimen writing executed in the same manner as the questioned writing for comparison purposes.

As mentioned in the preceding text, writing is actually a brain function, and the hand, fingers, mouth, foot and toes, etc. is the device used to hold the writing instrument while carrying out the instructions sent to them by the brain. The instructions sent from the brain contain information on what the letters, letter combinations, numerals, and other characteristics, qualities, and features of the writing are supposed to look like and how they are to be written.

Several other books that go into detail of how a person learns to write are The Art and Science of Handwriting,c by Sassoon (1993). In this work, Ms. Sassoon goes into these details in Chapters 2 and 3, analyzing the way a writer holds the writing instrument using the fingers of the hand to grip it and then moving it across the writing surface. The movement of the pen can also involve the movement of the hand and arm. A far more detailed analysis of this topic can be found in the book, The Study of Handwriting Movement/Peripheral Models and Signal Processing Techniques, by F. J. Maarse, copyright 1987, Swets and Zeitlinger B.V., Lisse and F.J. Maarse and printed by Offsetdrukkerij Kanters B.V., Alblasserdam.

The following developmental steps of a writer are described in many other leading texts in the field of Forensic Handwriting Identification (FHI). The following is a summary of the concepts written on this subject:

•The infant learns to clasp round objects like a finger or stick with their hand, grasping the object in the hollow of their hand wrapping their fingers around the object to keep it in place.

•The preschooler learns to make random movements and markings with their arm while holding a writing instrument with their fingers. Some children hold the writing instrument in their hands in the way that a toddler holds onto a finger. Eventually, they begin to hold the writing instrument with their fingers, similar to the way an adult holds a pen. Regardless of how the child holds the writing instrument, they leave a record of the random movements on the paper by drawing a series of lines, circles, marks, etc.

•With additional experience the youngster learns to color within the preprinted lines of a picture while manipulating the crayon with his arm, wrist, and finger movements.

•When the youngster is learning to write, they learn to make individual letters, typically hand-printed letterforms, by drawing them one line at a time, for example, the letter A. They draw the left side of the letter as an angular down stroke to the left, then the right side as a separate angular down stroke to the right, then adding the crossbar from left to right or maybe from right to left connecting the two angular lines. What the young student is doing is making a drawing of the letterform.

The arrows on the completed letter show the stroke direction called for by the copybook and typically used by the beginner during the learning phase as he begins to make the letter.

A preprinted set of model letterforms, collectively referred to as a writing system or copybook style of writing, is placed before the new student, and they are asked to draw the individual letters by following the instructions of their teacher and the drawings in the copybook. An example of such a preprinted system is shown in Fig. 1.1.

Fig. 1.1 Example of a printing style and cursive style of writing.

Occasionally the student is asked to write or draw the letterforms the same way the teacher writes/draws them on the blackboard at the front of the classroom. When the student does this, they attempt to copy the movements of the teacher and draw the letter or letters the way the teacher believes they should be written and what they should look like. This process can be referred to as drawing or simulating the teachers writing of that letter:

•Older students, learn to write cursive letterforms the same way they learned to write printed letterforms, plus learning how to connect these individually written letterforms together while maintaining each letterforms legibility. When they are first learning to write cursive letterforms and learning to connect them to the next letter in a single word, this activity may not be an easy task for the student to accomplish. In part the success of this exercise depends upon the style of the letters in the handwriting system they are learning, their attention to the details of writing each letter, and letter combination while connecting some letters and not necessarily connecting other letterforms.

As with printing letterforms, everyone who helps him influences the young person's writing because each of those writers may not write the letter or letter combinations exactly the same way as shown in the copybook. These variations in teaching and learning can have an impact on the students writing.

The student may spend many hours practicing and mastering both hand printing and cursive writing styles. Over time the act of writing individual hand-printed and cursive letters becomes more of a habitual activity because the student is no longer concerned about how each stroke of a letter or letter combinations are written. Connecting individual cursive letterforms using connecting strokes also becomes habitual, and the student finds his writing speed increasing while retaining legibility.

•As the student practices these new skills they begin to develop a higher level of writing skill or graphic maturity each time they write. The skill they develop is a combination of unique movements of the arm, wrist, and fingers as directed by the brain. This consistent act of make letter shapes, connecting strokes, and other writing movements, when fully developed, becomes their individual writing style and the more they write the greater their graphic maturity. At its highest level, every aspect of the writing act for them is well established and habitual.

Because they have no doubt, how each part of a letter form, how the parts of the letter and the connections between letters, placement of the writing with respect to a predrawn or imaginary baseline, etc. are to be written, this higher level of writing skill also helps to establish the writers’ individuality. The primary reason, because they are no longer concerned about how any letter or combination of letters should look or are written.

Additionally, during the learning process, they may practice different ways of holding the writing instrument to find that one pen hold that is most comfortable for him as they develop their own unique writing style and individuality. With increased writing practice and the development of additional writing skill, the writer will reach some maximum level of graphic maturity as a writer. When they reach this maximum level, they will have established a pattern of movements required to make letter shapes, connecting strokes, and other writing movements as well as developed habits. They will also have no doubt that what they are doing is correct, even if what they write departs from the copybook style they learned or the influence of their teachers.

The writer does not produce a letter or group of letters exactly the same way every time they write that letter or combination of letters. There is some normal variation expected in every writer's writing. As Wilson R. Harrisond describes this process, the writer does develop their own master pattern for writing that particular letter or letter combinations, but since they are not a machine that exactly reproduces each and every movement exactly alike, some variation is expected around their master pattern for each writing. That range of normal variation may be small or wide around the writer's master pattern.

Three other writers who describe the actual process of learning to write is Daniel T. Ames. In his book, Ames on Forgery: Its Detection and Illustration, With Numerous Causes Célébres (Illustrated).eChapter 2 of his book has a very good description of how the writer uses the combination of his arm, hand, and fingers while writing. A second good book is Forged, Anonymous, and Suspect Documentsf by Captain Arthur J. Quirke, B.A. in Chapter 1—pages 1–18. Here, he describes in detail The Individuality of Handwriting. Finally, Handwriting Identification/Facts and Fundamentals,gChapter 2 is another good resource.

For the purpose of this discussion, experience teaches that the majority, if not all, of the physiological principles of handwriting apply to all writers, regardless of the writing system learned.

Robert Saudek studied the writing act in the early 1900s. The objective of his studies was to determine how people learned to write, how they actually wrote and made letters, how to connect them together, etc. He lived in and studied the writing of people primarily in England and Europe. He had writers perform a series of experiments from which he derived a set of principles that are as valid today as they were then. If anything, experience has shown that his principles are scientifically sound and most important of all, reproducible (Poulin, 1993).

The following material is a paraphrased/edited version of some of the principles from his book, Experiments with Handwriting (Saudek, 1978). The text used by this author is a reprint done in 1978, of Mr. Saudek's original work. Paraphrased/edited material from other topics in his work will also be included in other places in this book. When the paraphrased/edited material of any of the referenced writers is used in this book, there is a reference to the source of the work in the endnote part of each chapter.

Seven physiological principles of handwritingh (Saudek, 1978, pp. 96–98)

Handwriting is usually done with the fingers and hand, connected to the writer's body by his arm. Like the fingers and hand, the wrist and arm contain many nerves and muscles that can affect the writer before, during, and after the act of writing. Therefore, it is necessary to examine the physiological principles of writing as summarized in the following seven of the eight principles that Mr. Saudek refers too.

Principle no. 1

Handwriting is a form of self-expression, and for the graphically mature writer, the various movements involved in writing are habitual. The muscles of their fingers, hand, and arm react to instructions from the brain that is communicated through the nerves. In most writers the fingers, hand, and arm then move with a rhythmical and unrestricted action to accomplish the brains instructions. This natural act of writing by the writer can provide them with a certain amount of pleasure. If they are a graphically mature writer, as defined in Mr. Saudek's book, they will be able to concentrate on the content of what they are writing and not on how each pen movement are supposed to be made. This is true regardless of whether the mature writer uses their fingers, hand, and arm separately or in some combination. The same applies to the toes, foot, leg, hip, mouth, etc., for those writers who are not able to write with their arms, hands, and fingers.

The writer's brain knows each movement necessary to write a letter; combinations of letters, connecting strokes, etc.; and how they are supposed to look after being written. All of these functions are done simultaneously at the direction of the brain during the act of writing. When the writer finishes all of the writing, they consciously or unconsciously compare each mental image they had with what they actually wrote. This is accomplished during the review process of written text. Occasionally, they may go back to a stroke, letter, or combination of letters and make corrections to clarify the written image on the paper so it conforms more closely to his mental image. This activity is referred to as patching or retouching of the writing typically for the purpose of clarification. Patching and retouching can also be indicators of spurious writing. The FDE must be extremely cautious when conducting their examination and comparison and assigning significance to such features. Reaching the correct conclusion based on the examination and comparison of the totality of the writing characteristics, qualities, and features is the most important part of the process.

Principle no. 2

The hand and finger muscles function best when making rhythmical contraction and relaxation movements. They become fatigued when either movement dominates. Therefore normal and natural writing occurs when the muscles are not fatigued, but are functioning in a truly rhythmical fashion consistent with the brain instructions.

Contracting muscle actions are usually more developed than are relaxing muscle actions. Why? Because typically the writer's grip on the pen is stronger or more forceful on down strokes than on up strokes when the writer is holding the pen in what some call a normal writing position. That is, the writers’ hand is typically located below the baseline of the writing, and fingers move the pen both above and below the baseline. As the writer increases the grip pressure (Saudek, 1978, p. 378) and moves the pen toward them, they gradually apply more force on the pen point in the direction of the paper, resulting in the writing of a darker line. When up strokes are written, their grip pressure gradually decreases, and the pen point is not forced against the paper surface with as much pressure, so the written line typically becomes lighter. This is true for writers’ who typically hold their pen in the more normal and accepted way. If the writer holds the writing instrument in such a way that they exert more pressure on the pen point when writing up strokes than down strokes, the up strokes will be darker because they are written with heavier writing pressure; the down strokes will be lighter because the fingers are relaxing as the down stroke is written.

Some writers hold and move the pen horizontally rather than vertically. Such writing can have uniform pressure in both directions, and the resultant line does not show the effects of increased and decreasing grip pressures. If the writer who normally writes holding their pen in this manner does rhythmically increase and decrease the pressure on the writing instrument, then some variations in relative pressure habits may be present. Such variations can be unique to each individual writer who writes this

Reviews for Forensic Handwriting Identification

[kenshin79-90711 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

The first book on FQDE that concentrates on the handwriting identification problem and is actually a *manual*, with detailed examples.
Also, it is the first one that clearly shows a trace of European Graphology - if anything else in quoting Roman and Saudek.
Modern, detailed, well-laid-out.