Questioned document investigations can be very tricky. It is important to obtain handwriting exemplars; the exemplars must be obtained in a manner to prevent the writer from disguising their writing.

Questioned documents also include document alterations; the analyses used to investigate and analyze these documents are critical and must be conducted cautiously to prevent the loss of evidence.

As with all evidence individual and class characteristics these characteristics allow us to either identify, eliminate or include photocopiers and printers as the source of the document.

§  Discuss the seven steps utilized to prevent a suspect from conscious writing when obtaining handwriting exemplars for comparison.

§  Define alterations, erasures, obliterations, and variations in ink. Discuss the techniques used to identify them.

§  Discuss the class and individual characteristics of printers and photocopiers.

§  In each of the following situations, indicate how you would go about recovering original writing that is not visible to the naked eye:

• The original words have been obliterated with a different ink than was used to compose the original.
• The original words have been obliterated by chemical erasure.
• The original writing was made with fluorescent ink.
• The original documents have been charred or burned.

This individual work should include the following:

• An in-depth submission that should be free of spelling and grammar errors.
• An essay 2 pages in length.

You may use your text or the internet as a reference, but remember to cite your sources according to APA guidelines.