June 21, 2013

One of the very first things you learn to do is to write. In school, you were forced to follow a handwriting rule book along with your peers, so at first every person’s penmanship looked the same, but as you got older, your writing started to develop characteristics unique to you. From the very first moment you put squiggled lines on paper, you were already developing a personality that could be tied to what would later on become your regular penmanship. Yes, the idea of finding out what a person is like based on his or her chicken scratch is an old one – there are more than a few businesses dedicated to analyzing how you dot your i’s and cross your t’s and what this says about you.

But more importantly, handwriting analysis lends a big hand to cracking criminal cases – we’ve all seen enough episodes of CSI to prove as much. Handwriting analysis is a very important aspect of forensic science and sometimes a crucial method for catching certain types of criminals, which is why it was a bit of a surprise when The Georgia Bureau of Investigation recently shuttered its Handwriting Analysis Unit after being in action for 20 years.

According to local news outlet Online Athens, the unit was actually temporarily suspended a year ago to give GBI analysts time to attain accreditation after they failed to meet requirements imposed by the American Society of Crime Laboratory Directors. According to a report, “Handwriting analysis has dwindled in importance to prosecutors over the years. Tests for DNA and firearms matching and drug and alcohol screenings are far more critical to criminal prosecutions. Handwriting analysis is most often useful in forgery cases.” Now that the unit is officially closed, agencies that rely on its forensic document examination services will have to hire private consultants.

Read the whole article here: http://www.digitaltrends.com/web/handwriting-analysis/

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