Problems of Forensic Sciences 2016 Vol. 107 (CVII) 569-581
THE INFLUENCE OF FORENSIC KNOWLEDGE ON SIGNATURE DISGUISE EFFECTIVENESS – A PRELIMINARY STUDY
Wioleta SZKODLARSKA
Laboratory of Criminalistics, Faculty of Law and Administration, Adam Mickiewicz University, Poznań, Poland
Streszczenie
The purpose of the paper was to determine whether possessing forensic knowledge influences signature disguise effectiveness. Five full natural signatures and five full disguised signatures were collected from thirteen participants. Thereafter, forensic knowledge was gradually passed on to the participants during lectures and successive disguised signatures were collected from them. In the signatures, the range and level of variability of quantifiable characteristics were analysed, as well as the number of variants and the stability level of structural features, legibility, impulse, and use of diacritics. Moreover, the level of signature disguise was assessed by laymen and by a forensic handwriting expert. Higher values of range and coefficients of variation were determined for the majority of quantifiable features, and frequently a higher number of variants and a lower stability level of structural features, legibility, impulse, and of diacritics use in disguised signatures executed by the participants after the lectures given by the researcher, than in natural signatures and disguised signatures before the lectures. It was determined that, as the level of forensic knowledge possessed by the executor increases, the signature disguise level increases as well. The results of the conducted study show that possessing forensic knowledge influences the effectiveness of signature disguise. Furthermore, it was determined that executors who possess extensive knowledge and skill in disguising signatures disguise their signatures by using one solution that is different from their habitual one.
Słowa kluczowe
Questioned Document Examination; Signature; Disguise.