Forensic Document Examination (FDE) is a forensic science discipline in which expert examiners evaluate documents disputed in the legal system . Questioned document examinations involve a comparison of the document, or aspects of the document, to a set of known standards (i.e., authentic specimens).
What is the role of a forensic document examiner?
By comparing documents found at a crime scene to a suspect’s known writing samples, the forensic document examiner can help confirm who wrote the note and include or exclude suspects from the investigation .
How do forensic document examiners determine if a document is genuine or authentic?
The job of a forensic document examiner may involve identifying the author of a document, determining the source of a document and figuring out whether the document has been altered in any way since publication . They may also compare signatures to determine forgeries.
What are questioned documents forensics?
Questioned document examination, also referred to as forensic document examination, is the branch of forensic science best known for the determination of authorship of signatures and handwriting but, in fact, involves much more comprehensive analyses of writing instruments, writing mediums, and office machine products.
What are the different types of forensic document examination?
The types of documents examined include wills, checks, bank signature cards, contracts, anonymous letters and other business forms . Documents can be on a physical surface or created electronically.
What skills must a document examiner have?
Communication skills : They must be able to testify in court if needed and explain their findings verbally and in writing to law enforcement officials and others. Critical thinking skills: Forensic document examiners must use their best judgment when examining documents and matching them to sources.
What are the 5 types of Questioned documents?
- • Wills. • Cheques. • Bank Drafts. • Agreements. • Receipts. ...
- • Identity Theft. • Forgeries. • Counterfeiting. • Suicides. • Homicides. ...
- • Surface features. • Latent images. • Alterations. • Watermarks. • Ink stamps.
What makes a document examiner become effective?
Learning the source of documents is important for a forensic document examiner to perform an effective examination. ... Similar writing should be compared with the questioned documents. This means that cursive writing is compared with cursive writing while printing is compared with printing.
What are the 12 major characteristics of handwriting?
- Line quality. Do the lines flow or are they shaky and irregular? ...
- Word and letter spacing. Are the letters and words equally spaced out, or are they bunched together? ...
- Size consistency. ...
- Pen lifts. ...
- Connecting strokes. ...
- Letters complete. ...
- Cursive and printed letters. ...
- Pen pressure.
What are 3 responsibilities of a forensic entomologist?
Forensic entomologist jobs as they relate to a criminal death investigation often involve: Responding to the crime scene to document, recover, and identify human remains and to collect and preserve physical an biological evidence. ... Developing procedures for forensic entomological case work, collection and documentation.
What are the types of documents?
- Emails.
- Business Letters.
- Business Reports.
- Transactional Documents.
- Financial Reports and Documents.
What are the 3 types of forgery?
- Archaeological forgery.
- Art forgery.
- Black propaganda — false information and material that purports to be from a source on one side of a conflict, but is actually from the opposing side.
- Counterfeiting. ...
- False documents.
- Forgery as covert operation.
- Identity document forgery. ...
- Literary forgery.
What are examples of Questioned documents?
Almost any type of document may become disputed in an investigation or litigation. For example, a questioned document may be a sheet of paper bearing handwriting or mechanically-produced text such as a ransom note, a forged cheque, or a business contract . It may be material not normally thought of as a ‘document’.
What are standard documents?
Standard document is defined as “ a document approved by a recognized body that provides , for common and repeated use, rules, guidelines, or characteristics for products or related processes and production methods, with which compliance is not mandatory.
What are the two types of writing specimens?
There are two types of handwriting specimens, request specimens and course-of-business specimens .
What is the difference between disputed documents to document?
Document- is any material that contains marks, symbols, or signs, visible or partially visible & convey meaning or message. Disputed Document-is the term given when there is an argument or controversy on the document.
