A protocol for the examination of handwritten documents

Abstract

A review is presented of a manual, translated into English, by Marie-Jeanne Sedeyn, honorary handwriting expert at the Court of Appeal in Paris, and professor at the department of Forensic Medicine at Montpellier, France. The volume is critical with respect to the 'psychological' interpretation of handwriting characteristics by forensic experts in France, who appear to have difficulty to confine themselves to empirical observation. It presents a tool for the disciplined off-line scrutiny of specimens of handwriting, looking at many (up to about 400) features in a document. In the review, the status of forensic handwriting expertise is evaluated in line with the author's inclination to adhere strictly to objective measurement and assessment.