 
 
   |
| Forensic Science Communications | January 2003 — Volume 5 — Number 1 |
 |
 Research and Technology |
|
Meeting the Daubert Challenge: A Bibliography of Handwriting Articles for the Forensic Document Examiner Diana
Harrison Abstract.......Introduction.......References.......Bibliography In 1993 the United States Supreme Court decision in the case of Daubert v. Merrell Dow Pharmaceuticals, Inc., set forth a nonexclusive list of criteria for judges to use when determining whether the testimony of a proffered expert is reliable. One of these criteria is whether the theory or technique that the expert is offering has been subjected to peer review and publication. According to the court, "[p]ublication (which is but one element of peer review) is not a sine qua non of admissibility; it does not necessarily correlate with reliability . . . But submission to the scrutiny of the scientific community is a component of 'good science,' in part because it increases the likelihood that substantive flaws in methodology will be detected" (Daubert v. Merrell Dow Pharmaceuticals Inc., 1993, p. 11). Additionally, the publication, presentation, and peer review of theories and techniques relied upon by a particular discipline go a long way in securing general acceptance for that discipline in the relevant scientific community, another of the factors set forth by the court in Daubert. To indicate that there has been considerable peer review, this paper offers a limited bibliography about handwriting and the basis for its examination and identification. The examination of questioned handwriting is an expertise that has been provided by major federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies for almost 100 years. During this time, handwriting examination testimony has been accepted in court on a regular basis. Recently, however, as a result of the 1993 Daubert decision, the 1999 Kumho decision (Kumho Tire Company v. Patrick Carmichael, 1999), and a series of law review articles by three law professors, forensic document examiners have had the reliability of their testimony challenged in the courtroom. These challenges usually take one of two forms: either that there is no basis for the premise that handwriting is unique to the individual, or that document examiners do not possess an expertise that assists the trier of fact. This bibliography contains articles that address these issues, including the individuality of handwriting, twin studies, the physiology of handwriting, the frequency of occurrence of characteristics, and the proficiency of document examiners. This bibliography is not intended to be all-inclusive; however, it should serve as a good starting point for forensic document examiners at all levels of experience for training, research, and preparation for courtroom testimony. Daubert v. Merrell Dow Pharmaceuticals, Inc., 509 US, 579 (1993). Kumho Tire Company v. Patrick Carmichael, 526 US, 137 (1999). Armistead, T. Issues in the identification of handprinting: A case study in anonymous death threats, Journal of Police Science and Administration (1984) 12:81-98. Askov, E., Otto, W., and Askov, W. A decade of research in handwriting progress and prospect, Journal of Educational Research (1970) 64:100-111. Baxendale, D. and Renshaw, I. D. The large-scale searching of handwriting samples, Journal of the Forensic Science Society (1979) 19:245-251. Beacom, M. Handwritings by the Dionne Quintuplets at the Age of Sixteen. Presented at the American Society of Questioned Document Examiners, Rochester, New York, 1979. Beacom, M. S. A study of handwritings by twins and other persons of multiple births, Journal of Forensic Sciences (1960) 5:121-131. Bensefia, A., Nosary, A., Paquet, T., and Heutte, L. Writer Identification by Writer's Invariants. Presented at the Eighth International Workshop on Frontiers in Handwriting Recognition, Ontario, Canada, 2002. Berthold, N. N. Principle Number One, Uno, Eins. Presented at the American Society of Questioned Document Examiners, Chicago, Illinois, 1995. Berthold, N. N. and Wooton, E. X. Class Characteristics of Latin American Hand Printing. Presented at the American Society of Questioned Document Examiners, Ottawa, Canada, 1993. Boot, D. An investigation into the degree of similarity in the handwriting of identical and fraternal twins in New Zealand, Journal of the American Society of Questioned Document Examiners (1998) 70-81. Britt, S. H. and Mensh, I. N. The identification of one's own handwriting, Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology (1943) 34:50-60. Carney, B. B. A Review: Variation-Range of Variation in Handwriting. Presented at the American Society of Questioned Document Examiners, Nashville, Tennessee, 1984. Caywood, D. The Impact of Foreign Education on the Handwriting of Individuals Learning English as a Second Language. Presented at the American Society of Questioned Document Examiners, Washington, DC, 1996. Cusack, C. T. The Validity of Similar Letter Substitution in an Adolescent Population. Presented at the American Society of Questioned Document Examiners, Chicago, Illinois, 1995. Doud, D. Foreign Writing Accents. Presented at the American Society of Questioned Document Examiners, Richmond, Virginia, 1954. Eagleson, O. W. The success of sixty subjects in attempting to recognize their handwriting, Journal of Applied Psychology (1937) 21:546-549. Eldridge, M. A., Nimmo-Smith, I., Wing, A. M., and Totty, R. N. The dependence between selected categorical measures of cursive handwriting, Journal of the Forensic Science Society (1985) 25:217-231. Eldridge, M. A., Nimmo-Smith, I., Wing, A. M., and Totty, R. N. The variability of selected features in cursive handwriting: Categorical measures, Journal of the Forensic Science Society (1984) 24:179-219. Ellen, D. M. Handwriting examination of unfamiliar scripts, International Journal of Forensic Document Examiners (1999) 5:424-429. Evett, I. W. and Totty, R. N. A study of the variation in the dimensions of genuine signatures, Journal of the Forensic Science Society (1985) 25:207-215. Franck, F. E. Handwriting is Unique: Twin Studies. Presented at the American Society of Questioned Document Examiners, Ottawa, Canada, 2000. Franck, F. E. and Wooton, E. X. European Hand Printing. Presented at the American Society of Questioned Document Examiners, Chicago, Illinois, 1995. Gamble, D. J. The handwriting of identical twins, Journal of the Canadian Society of Forensic Science (1980) 13:11-30. Hanlen, R. C., Manzolillo, P. A., Muehlberger, R. J., and Sperry, G. R. Survey of handwriting habit areas used by forensic document examiners: Degree of use and discriminatory power, Journal of the American Society of Questioned Document Examiners (1999) 45-50. Hanna, G. A. Preliminary classification of the writing elements of Chinese characters, Journal of Forensic Sciences (1989) 34:439-453. Harris, J. J. How much do people write alike: A study of signatures, Journal of Criminal Law, Criminology and Police Science (1958) 48:647-651. Harvey, R. and Mitchell, R. M. The Nicola Brazier murder: The role of handwriting in a large-scale investigation, Journal of the Forensic Science Society (1973) 13:157-168. Hecker, M. R. FISH. Presented at the American Society of Questioned Document Examiners, Savannah, Georgia, 1986. Hecker, M. R. and Koller, N. The Philosophy and Structure of the West German Handwriting Identification Service. Presented at the International Association of Forensic Sciences, Oxford, England, 1984. Hilton, O. How individual are personal writing habits? Journal of Forensic Sciences (1983) 28:683-685. Horan, J. J. and Horan, G. J. A Study of Numbers. Presented at the International Association of Forensic Sciences, Oxford, England, 1984. Horton, R. A. A study of the occurrence of certain handwriting characteristics in a random population, International Journal of Forensic Document Examiners (1996) 2:95-102. Huber, R. A. The Uniqueness of Writing. Presented at the American Society of Questioned Document Examiners, San Jose, California, 1990. Kam, M., Fielding, G., and Conn, R. Writer identification by professional document examiners, Journal of Forensic Sciences (1997) 42:778-785. Kam, M., Gummadidala, K., Fielding, G., and Conn, R. Signature authentication by forensic document examiners, Journal of Forensic Sciences (2001) 46:884-888. Kam, M., Wetstein, J., and Conn, R. Proficiency of professional document examiners in writer identification, Journal of Forensic Sciences (1994) 39:5-14. Keele, S. W. Movement control in skilled motor performance, Psychological Bulletin (1968) 70:387-403. Kroon-van der Kooij, L. N. Differences Between Handwritten Characters in Relation to Various Nationalities. Presented at the International Association of Forensic Sciences, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, 1987. Kuennapas, T. and Janson, A. Multidimensional similarity of letters, Perceptual and Motor Skills (1969) 3-12. Levinson, J. Questioned document examination in foreign scripts, Forensic Science International (1983) 22:249-252. Ling, S. A preliminary investigation into handwriting examination by multiple measurements of letters and spacing, Forensic Science International (2002) 126:145-149. Livingston, O. B. Frequency of certain characteristics in handwriting, pen-printing of two hundred people, Journal of Forensic Sciences (1963) 8:250-259. Livingston, O. B. A handwriting and pen-printing classification system for identifying law violators, Journal of Criminal Law, Criminology and Police Science (1959) 49:487-506. Maguire, K. B. and Moran, T. L. Identification of Written Text Writings by the Forensic Information System for Handwriting. Presented at the American Society of Questioned Document Examiners, Washington, DC, 1996. McCarley, D. Crossover: Does It Exist Between English and Ideographic Characters and Are They Class or Individualizing Features? Presented at the Southwestern Association of Forensic Document Examiners, Tucson, Arizona, 1996. McNally, G. A. Chinese Character Signatures: Examination and Testimony. Presented at the American Society of Questioned Document Examiners, Orlando, Florida, 1991. Moenssens, A. A. Handwriting identification evidence in the post-Daubert World, University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Law, Law Review (1997) 66:251-343. Muehlberger, R. J. Variation: A Measure of Genuineness. Presented at the American Society of Questioned Document Examiners, Boston, Massachusetts, 1982. Muehlberger, R. J., Newman, K. W., Regent, J., and Wichmann, J. G. A statistical examination of selected handwriting characteristics, Journal of Forensic Sciences (1977) 22:206-215. Nagel, R. N. and Rosenfeld, A. Computer detection of freehand forgeries, IEEE Transactions on Computers (1977) 26:895-905. Nemecek, J. Seeking Out Individualities in Handlettering. Presented at the Third International Meeting in Questioned Documents and the American Society of Questioned Document Examiners in conjunction with the Fifth International Meeting of Forensic Sciences, Toronto, Ontario, Canada, 1969. Newman, H. H., Freeman, F. N., and Holzinger, K. J. Twins: A Study of Heredity and Environment. University of Chicago Press, Oxford, England, 1937. Peck, M., Askov, E., and Fairchild, S. H. Another decade of research in handwriting: Progress and prospect in the 1970s, Journal of Educational Research (1980) 73:283-298. Purtell, D. J. and Casey, M. A. The Comparison Value of Hand Printing Styles. Presented at the American Society of Questioned Document Examiners, Houston, Texas, 1981. Ramsey, S. L. Learning to write in the 1990s, International Journal of Forensic Document Examiners (1998) 4:329-333. Rhodes, E. F. The implications of kinesthetic factors in forensic handwriting comparisons. Doctoral thesis, University of California, Berkeley, 1978. Ridolfi, D. A. Evaluation of Class Characteristics in a Large Collected Writing Sample. Presented at the American Society of Questioned Document Examiners and the International Association of Forensic Sciences, Los Angeles, California, 1999. Ruenes, R. F. Perception and handwriting identification, Journal of Forensic Sciences (1967) 12:102-111. Schuetzner, E. M. Class characteristics of hand printing, Journal of the American Society of Questioned Document Examiners (1999) 5-33. Shimoda, J. Various Causes of Change in Handwriting: Their Effect on Identifications. Presented at the Conference of Crime Laboratory Directors, Chicago, Illinois, 1974. Shiver, F. C. Case Report: The Individuality of Handwriting Demonstrated Through the Field Screening of 1000 Writers. Presented at the American Society of Questioned Document Examiners, Washington, DC, 1996. Sita, J., Found, B., and Rogers, D. K. Forensic handwriting examiners' expertise for signature comparison, Journal of Forensic Sciences (2002) 47:1117-1124. Smith, G. D. Simulations and Foreign Handwriting Influence: A Case Review. Presented at the American Society of Questioned Document Examiners, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, 1993. Smith, K. U. and Bloom, R. The electronic handwriting analyzer and motion study of writing, Journal of Applied Psychology (1956) 40:302-306. Somerford, A. A Manual for Examiners of Questioned Documents. U.S. Postal Service, 1953. Srihari, S. N., Cha, S., Arora, H., and Lee, S. Individuality of handwriting, Journal of Forensic Sciences (2002) 47:856-872. Stangohr, G. R. Comments on the determination of nationality from handwriting, Journal of Forensic Sciences (1971) 16:343-358. Stevens, V. Similarities in the Handwritings of Members of One Family as Compared to Unrelated Groups. Wisconsin State Crime Laboratory, Madison, Wisconsin, 1964. Taylor, L. R. and Chandler, H. A system for handwriting classification, Journal of Forensic Sciences (1987) 32:1775-1781. Thorndike, E. L. The resemblance of young twins in handwriting, American Naturalist (1915) 49:377-379. Torres, B. A Study of Vietnamese Class Characteristics. Presented at the American Academy of Forensic Sciences, San Diego, California, 1987. Trizna, L. A. and Wooton, E. X. Hand Printing of the Middle East and the Subcontinent. Presented at the American Society of Questioned Document Examiners, Washington, DC, 1996. Trizna, L. A. and Wooton, E. X. Asian Hand Printing. Presented at the American Academy of Forensic Sciences, Seattle, Washington, 1995. Trizna, L. A. and Ziegler, L. F. African Hand Printing. Presented at the American Society of Questioned Document Examiners, Long Beach, California, 1994. Vastrick, T. W. The Uniqueness of Handwriting-Survey Results. Presented at the American Society of Questioned Document Examiners, Chicago, Illinois, 1995. Wing, A. M. and Nimmo-Smith, I. The variability of cursive handwriting measure defined along a continuum: Letter specificity, Journal of the Forensic Science Society (1987) 27:297-306. Welch, J. R. A Review of Handwriting Search Cases as an Indicator of the Individuality of Handwriting. Presented at the American Society of Questioned Document Examiners, Washington, DC, 1996. Wooton, E. X. A Preliminary Discussion of Research and Reference Materials Using the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service Collection of Handwriting from Other Countries. Presented at the American Society of Questioned Document Examiners, Long Beach, California, 1994. Zimmerman, J. Counting handwriting characteristics, International Journal of Forensic Document Examiners (1998) 4:318-322. Zlotnick,
J. A statistical study of some differentiating characteristics
of the handwritten letters AIT. Master's thesis, University
of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, Alabama, 1998. |
 |
TABLE OF CONTENTS — BACK ISSUES — SEARCH — EMPLOYMENT — MEETINGS AND CONFERENCES |
| |
FBI PUBLICATIONS — EDITORS — ABOUT FSC — SUBMITTING MANUSCRIPTS |
| |
HANDBOOK OF FORENSIC SERVICES — FBI LABORATORY |
| Forensic Science Communications | January 2003 — Volume 5 — Number 1 |