Damaging Similarities in Highly Skilled Signature Simulations - Their Detection and Authorship

Abstract

Questioned document examination is a highly specialized and challenging field of study, because of the variety and complexity of problems that are referred to document examiners. Detection and identification of practiced simulated forgeries is an area of forensic science which requires the professional skill, capability and acumen of an examiner, every time he (or she) is called upon to examine and report a case of this nature. This is because firstly, the practiced simulations bear a striking semblance to the copied model and usually contains the handwriting features of the writers, the real person as well as the forger, though in varying degrees.Secondly, the skilled forger rarely leaves his own imprint in the forgery he committed. Most authorities on the subject have advised that the identification of authorship, in such cases, may be considered as an exception rather than the rule. Besides discussing and reviewing the work done in this regard, the authors have also presented and illustrated an intricate case study where the authorship of simulated signatures could be associated with the known handwriting of the suspected forger

Keywords

• forensic science
• handwriting
• signatures
• practiced simulations
• identification
• forgery
• forensic document examiner