title: Simulation Detection in Handwritten Documents by Forensic Document Examiners.
abstract: This study documents the results of a controlled experiment designed to quantify the abilities of forensic document examiners (FDEs) and laypersons to detect simulations in handwritten documents. Nineteen professional FDEs and 26 laypersons (typical of a jury pool) were asked to inspect test packages that contained six (6) known handwritten documents written by the same person and two (2) questioned handwritten documents. Each questioned document was either written by the person who wrote the known documents, or written by a different person who tried to simulate the writing of the person who wrote the known document. The error rates of the FDEs were smaller than those of the laypersons when detecting simulations in the questioned documents. Among other findings, the FDEs never labeled a questioned document that was written by the same person who wrote the known documents as "simulation." There was a significant statistical difference between the responses of the FDEs and layperson for documents without simulations.
authors.affiliation: Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, New Jersey Institute of Technology, University Heights, Newark, NJ, 07102.
authors.forename: Moshe
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Kam
authors.affiliation: Data Fusion Laboratory, Electrical and Computer Engineering Department, Drexel University, 3141 Chestnut Street, Philadelphia, PA.
authors.forename: Pramod
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Abichandani
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Drexel University, PSA Building, 3141 Chestnut Street, Philadelphia, PA.
authors.forename: Tom
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Hewett
keywords: forensic science; handwritten documents; mock jury; proficiency testing; questioned document examination; simulated handwriting