Investigating forensic document examiners’ skill relating to opinions on photocopied signatures

Many forensic document examiners are hesitant to express authorship opinions on photocopied handwriting as the photocopying process results in less feature information than original writing. This study aimed to test the accuracy of 15 examiners' opinions regarding whether photocopied questioned...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Science & justice 2005-10, Vol.45 (4), p.199-206
Main Authors: Found, B., Rogers, D.K.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
document examiners
Forensic science
handwriting examination
photocopy
signatures
validation
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Summary:Many forensic document examiners are hesitant to express authorship opinions on photocopied handwriting as the photocopying process results in less feature information than original writing. This study aimed to test the accuracy of 15 examiners' opinions regarding whether photocopied questioned signatures were genuine or simulated. Each examiner received the same set of original signature exemplars, from one individual, and a set of eighty questioned photocopied signatures comprising of genuine and simulated signatures. The overall misleading (error) rate for the grouped examiners' opinions was 0.9% providing strong evidence that examiners can make accurate observations regarding the authorship of non-original handwriting.
ISSN:1355-0306
1876-4452
DOI:10.1016/S1355-0306(05)71667-1