Professional Documents
Culture Documents
It's probably a futile effort to rigidly demarcate and delimit the various
areas of QDE as there will always be overlap, evolution, and, perhaps,
controversy.
INVESTIGATIVE FOUNDATIONS
THEORETICAL UNDERPINNINGS
1. The most identifying characteristics are those which are most divergent
from the regular system or national average
2. Repeated characteristics which are inconspicuous should be sought first
and given the most weight
3. Regular or national system similarities are not alone sufficient to base
judgments.
4. It is the combination of particulars, common and uncommon, that
identifies
5. It is impossible to discover how all strange and peculiar characteristics
came to be developed
6. People do wholly unaccountable things in their speech, gestures, and
writing
7. An individual characteristic may be the survival of an error overlooked
by a teacher
8. Many characteristics are outgrowths or copies of an at one time admired
design
TECHNICO-LEGAL CONSIDERATIONS
A potential problem exists with signatures. People usually have three (3)
different signatures: (1) a formal one, used on important documents; (2) a
routine one, used on regular correspondence; and (3) an informal one,
used for jotting quick notes. Also, other circumstances affect writing such
as age, arthritis, emotional distress, medication, intoxication, and
corrective vision. It's difficult to tell handedness, gender, and age from
unknown samples. QDE experts must consider all these things, and make
an informed judgement (usually in consultation with an investigator or
attorney) based on their familiarity with handwriting dynamics (e.g.,
appearance, laborious movements, rhythm). With an impairment like
arthritis, for example, the writing function may become more of a
conscious than subconscious effort, making for a more complex case.
However, a paraphrasing of Larry Miller's (1987) indicia drawn from a
review of the forgery literature might provide useful guidelines when
dealing with impaired or deliberately deceptive writing:
Graphology systems tend to be one of three (3) types: (1) those based on
individual letter formations; (2) those based on stroke analysis; and (3)
those based on an holistic/gestalt method. Over 3000 private business
companies use it routinely (to screen employees), and it enjoys a growing
sense of scientific respectability. The courts appear to be waiting to see
college psychology courses on it. It probably has the most validity with the
following domains: (1) intelligence; (2) attitude toward work; and (3)
interpersonal skills. Recent developments have focused on "profiling" of
uncaptured criminals and sex offenders (where handwriting analysts say
they can spot a "perversion", not exactly the best word for it).
There's some precedent in art therapy and projective psychological
testing for graphology. Many convictions of child sex offenders have
occurred because of what the child victim portrayed in a drawing, and
with psychological testing, there's the famous "Draw a Pig" assignment,
which apparently contains everything you need to make a subjective
personality assessment from: where placed on paper; the size of the pig;
the pressure applied; the direction the pig is facing; attention to details;
line quality; angular or curved strokes; and emphasis on head of pig.
TESTIFYING IN COURT