JERALYN H SACRO

Davao Oriental State College of Science and

Technology (DOSCST)
Mati City Davao Oriental

FORENSIC SCIENCE AND

QUESTIONED DOCUMENTS

Modern use as
LEGAL

Debate and arguments

in the court.

Systematic body of knowledge

Includes natural sciences , Biology,

chemistry to answer issue on court.

FORENSIC SCIENCE
In court proceedings may in form of the following;

1. QUESTION TO PONDER

DIFFERENCE BETWEEN
FORENSIC SCIENCE AND
CRIMINALISTICS?

Is there a difference?
Or are they the same
thing?

Forensic Science has to do with the more

scientific endeavors such as forensic
anthropology, botany, geology, etc.
Criminalistics- deals primarily with crime scene
evidence collection and processing.

Criminalistics is a part of FORENSIC SCIENCE .

Forensic Science is the application of the broad
spectrum of sciences to answer questions in the interest
of legal problems.

FORENSIC QUESTIONED
DOCUMENTS

Any material containing marks, symbols, or signs

either visible, partially visible that may present or
ultimately convey a meaning to someone, maybe in
the form of pencil, ink writing, typewriting, or
printing on paper.

A material which some

issue has been raised
or which is under
scrutiny.

QUESTIONED DOCUMENTS
One in which the facts appearing therein may
not be true, and are contested either in whole
or part with respect to its authenticity, identity,
or
origin.
Disputed
Document
and
Questioned
Document
are
used
interchangeably to signify a document that is
under special scrutiny or controversy.

What pen wrote this?

What type of paper is it written
on?

Has it been altered

DOCUMENTS ANALYSIS
Reveal a document was written
with a specific writing instrument
The same ink can be used in
many pens. (even different
brands)
UV and Infrared light
Pages may have been added to
a document
Question of where/when the
document originated
Paper size and thickness
Opacity, Color, Brightness

Typewriters/printers can leave

individual markings

Can be class characteristics or

individual characteristics

Who wrote this?

Erasures, alterations or
obligations, etc

Counterfeiting

Handwriting, how to Proved?

Handwriting
Characteristics

Line Quality
Word and Letter
Spacing
Letter Comparison
Pen Lifts
Connecting strokes
Beginning and
ending strokes

Unusual Letter
Formation
Shading or pen
pressure
Slant
Baseline Habits
Flourishes or
embellishments

TYPES OF DOCUMENTS

STANDARD
OR
EXEMPLAR

QUESTIONED

Requested

Non-requested

KINDS OF DOCUMENTS
Documents notarized by a notary
public

Agents or its officers having the

authority to do so for official purpose

Documents deed made by private

person

Code of commercial law

Is it possible that private

documents may become
public of official documents?

QUIZ?

 powers of attorney, declarations,

contracts, invitations.
Census records
Criminal records
Consumer protection information
Government spending reports
Legislation minutes
Professional and business licenses
Real estate appraisal records
Sex offender registration files
Voter registration

Give example of commercial

and official

Scientific methods in
Questioned Documents
1

Analysis

Comparison

Evaluation

Terms
HOLOGRAPHIC DOCUMENT
Any document completely written and signed by one person.
WRITING
Is the result of a very complicated series of acts, being as a
whole a combination of certain forms, which are the very visible
result of mental and muscular habits, acquired by long,
continued, painstaking effort.
HANDWRITING
Is a visible effect of bodily movements, which is an almost
unconscious expression of certain ideas associated with script
form.

KINDS OF WRITING

Cursive Connected writing in which one

letter is joined to the next.

Script- Separated Writing

Block All capital letters

SIGNATURE
Is ones name written by himself on a document as
a sign of acknowledgment.(Formal and Informal)
FORGERY
The act of falsely making or materially altering,
with intent to defraud, any writing which if genuine,
might be of legal efficacy or the foundation of a
legal liability.
The act of erasing, substituting and altering by any
means the figures, letters, words or signs
contained therein.
FALSIFICATION
The act/process of making the content/s of a
document not the intended document.

KINDS OF FORGERY
Simple Forgery
(Spurious
Signature)
The forger signs in the absence of the
facsimile of the genuine signature.

Genuine Signature

Simple Forgery

KINDS OF FORGERY
Simulated
The forger simulate the genuine
signature or handwriting.

Traced
Is the result of an attempt to
transfer to a fraudulent
document an exact facsimile
of a genuine signature or
writing by some tracing
process. (Carbon Process,
Indentation Process, and
transmitted light process)

Question to ponder

Can you describe an

individual's personality from
examining handwriting?

answer
No, forensic document examination does
not develop information about personality.
There is a separate field of study called
"Graphology" which deals with personality
and handwriting.

Can right or left handedness

be detected by examining
handwriting?

answer

Contrary to popular belief, there are three

things that can not be reliably ascertained
by examining handwriting. One of those is
the "handedness" of the writer. The other
two things are the author's gender and
age.

Can you compare printed

writing to cursive writing?

answer
Rarely. Some writers style of writing is a mix of cursive and
printed forms, thereby allowing the examiner to carry out
some level of examination on either cursive or printed
writing. There are also many factors other than letter
formation that enter into the examination and and analysis
process. However, it is generally accepted that the materials
to be compared need to be written in the same style: cursive
to cursive, hand printing to hand printing, upper case to
upper case, lower case to lower case, and one of the first
steps in methodology is to determine that the materials
provided are indeed comparable according to this principle.

Can you examine documents

in a foreign language?

 Yes, it is possible, but the examiner must first learn

about the characteristics of the written language
and how that writing is taught. For example, in
some languages, placement of diacriticals
(distinguishing strokes) is important, and in other
languages, shading of handwritten strokes is
significant. The actual methods of examination are
the same, but factors are weighed differently when
the structure of the writing varies among languages.

Can a document examiner

work with photocopies of
questioned documents?

answer
This question must be answered on a case by case
basis. If the copy is of good quality, and if there is
enough information in the writing to allow an opinion, a
copy can be sufficient. But there are some situations
where the opinion rests on a subtle aspect of the writing
that might only be visible on an original viewed under the
microscope. In such situations, examination of the
original is critical. Often the examiner's opinion must be
qualified due to limitations on the examination process
due to submission of non-original documents.

THANK YOU!!