Forensic 4 Lesson 4 - QUESTIONED DOCUMENT

EXAMINATION
Questioned Document Examination (Southville International School and
Colleges )

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FORENSIC 4 | QUESTIONED DOCUMENT EXAMINATION

LESSON 4

Forgery- is a purposeful attempt to make a fraudulent copy of something, whether

it is a signature, money or a piece of art.

Fraudulent- the origin is not what it is presented to be.

 Documents that have been established as not genuine and that actual fraud has
been determined.

 Legally, forgery requires the element of intent to defraud.

 Not all non-authentic signatures are signed with the intent to defraud.

History of Forgery

The crime of forgery has been practiced since ancient times where writing existed. The
following are important events in the history of forgery:

 80 BC- Romans prohibited the falsification of documents that transferred land to

heirs.

 1726- False endorsement on an unsealed private document became a crime

punishable by pillory, fines, imprisonment and even death.

 1823- The United States enacted the principal federal forgery statute that
prohibited false making, forgery or alteration of any writing for the purpose of
obtaining financial gain.

 1962- The American Law Institute’s Model Penal Code simplified and defined the
elements of forgery and became the standard for defining the crime forgery. 3

Indication of Genuineness

 To identify a signature as genuine or imitation, known genuine signatures of

the person whose signature is in question is needed.
 To identify an unknown writer, the examiner needs known writing sample of suspects.
 These known samples establish a writer’s unique identifying characteristics and
variations. These are called exemplars/ standards.

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Features of genuine writing

1. Smooth, rapid, nonstop and free-flowing pen movement.

2. Sweeping and unbroken starting and ending strokes in rounded forms.

3. Sweeping, misplaced and misshapen i-dots and t-crosses.

4. Joining of initials or words.

5. Wide writing and spacing.

6. Simplification of forms such as capitals.

7. Letters tapered illegibly toward the end or words.

8. Marked difference in pressure on upstrokes and downstrokes.

9. Delicate pressure at beginning and ending strokes to letters.

10.Absence of carefully made repair and correcting strokes.

11. Letter formations and pen movements that show close similarity to the
exemplars’ letter formations and pen movements.

12.Flying start and flying finishes or flourishing strokes

13.Vanishing terminal stroke

14.Hiatus

15.Broken and unfinished signature

16.Careless correction or careless retouching

Generally speaking, the more rapidly the writing is made, the more natural it is.
The absence of approach strokes to certain letters could also be indications of
naturalness when found in larger bodies of writing.

Although the genuine writing of aged, ill or unskilled writers can be slow,
tremulous and laboriously written, it will usually show a naturalness and
consistency that can be recognized by the experienced examiner.

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General Indications of non-genuineness

1. Hesitation

2. Pen stop and unusual places

3. Abrupt change in the direction of stroke

4. Non-continuous of stroke

5. Tremors or tremolos movement

6. Lack of variation of pen pressure

7. Blunt initial and terminal stroke

8. Unnatural penstop and open lift

9. Careful retouching

10.Concealed junction connection

11.Defective line quality

12.Presence of indentation and traces of carbon (in case of traced forgery)

In order to arrive in a reliable conclusion, the examiner needs genuine documents

for comparison to the questioned document. The known materials needed for
comparison purposes are known as STANDARDS.

STANDARDS

 Are condensed and compact-set of authentic specimen which is adequate and

proper, should contain a cross section of the material form it source.

 Collected and Requested Standards

FACTORS TO BE CONSIDERED IN THE SELECTION OF STANDARDS

1. Amount of standards

2. Similarity of subject matter

3. Relatives of the QD and SD

WHAT ARE THE DO’S AND DON’TS IN COLLECTING EXEMPLARS

1. Don’t rely on too little writing.

 20-25 signatures

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  4-5 pages of handwriting

2. Don’t rely exclusively on writing that differs significantly from the questioned one.

3. Do collect similar samples

4. Don’t rely on documents recently written if the comparison documents were

written many years ago.

5. Do collect standards dated at approximately the same time as the

questioned document.

6. Don’t compare writing written under abnormal conditions with normal writing.

7. Do collect documents that duplicate the writing environment.

8. Do instruct the writer to obtain similar exemplars.

Methods of forgery

1. Simulated forgery- one made by copying a genuine signature.

2. Traced forgery- one made by tracing a genuine signature.

3. Blind forgery- made without a model of the signature.

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What is alteration?

 Alteration is the change made on a document after its original preparation.

 A change that appear on document should not be readily considered

fraudulent; the alteration should be considered in a thorough and careful
manner to be able to determine the reasonable facts. It is therefore,
become necessary to distinguished which is fraudulent from that of genuine
alteration.

 An obvious change often is evidence not of fraud but of genuineness. A

delicate and partly concealed change may be very suspicious and therefore it
is fraudulent.

 Fraudulent changes naturally are made in a hidden manner and they may
never be discovered, if, special attention is not directed this manner.

 Alteration can be generally seen with the aid of a good magnifying glass and
the help of special lighting.

Kinds of Alteration

1.Erasure-The removal of writing, typewriting or printing from a document.

Kinds of Erasures

1.Chemical Erasure- The writing is effaced by the use of liquid ink eradicator.

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2.Mechanical or Abrasive Erasure

The writing is effaced by rubbing with a rubber eraser or scratching out with knife or
other sharp instrument.

How to detect mechanic or abrasive eraser eradicator?

 Loosening or disturbance of paper fibers and this creates a feathering effect on

the ink.

 Thinning out of affected area resulting to transparency.

 Appearance of fibers has glassy substance on outward up-trust position.

2.Obliteration

The blotting out or smearing over of writing to make the original invisible or
undecipherable.

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If the two inks differ, however, photography with infrared-sensitive film may reveal the
original writing.

If an obliteration is done with the same ink as we used to write the original material,
recovery is usually impossible.

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3.Addition

Any matter made part of the document after its original preparation.

4.Subtraction

Any matter rubbed out, strike out and/ or scratched out after its original preparation.

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5.Interlineation or insertion

The term insertion and interlineations include the addition of writing and other materials
between lines or paging or the addition of whole pages to a document.

6.Smeared-over writing

Often accomplished by covering or smearing over original writing with an opaque

substance.

Disguised Writing

Any deliberate attempt to alter one's handwriting to prevent recognition. Anonymous

letters, blackmail attempts, ransom notes, threats, and similar documents are created
by writers who feel their altered handwriting cannot be attributed to them.

Methods of Disguised

1. Change in slant

2. Altered letter forms

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 3. Use of block letters

4. Other hand writing

5. Change of Writing instrument

6. Change of speed

Signs of Disguised

1. Inconsistencies within the writing

2. Poor rhythm

3. Erratic movement followed by smooth rhythmic writing

4. Slowness and hesitation

Solution of a disguised writing problem

1. Collection and study of adequate standards which contain the fixed, occasional, rare,
and accidental characteristics of the writer. Frequently the most difficult part of a case is
locating good specimens.

2. Study of questioned writing to determine if it is normal handwriting containing natural

variations or if it is disguised.

3. Comparison of questioned with standard writing methodically listing identifying (or

non- identifying) characteristics of the handwriting, composition, arrangement, ink,
writing instrument, paper, etc.

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