Forensics: Document/Handwriting Analysis Vocab

Counterfeiting: The act of forging or imitating something valuable, typically money or documents, with the intent to deceive or defraud.

Currency: A system of money in general use within a particular country, often the target of counterfeiting efforts in forensic investigations.

Document: Any written or printed matter that provides evidence or data relevant to forensic analysis, such as letters, contracts, or identification.

Document Analysis: A forensic process involving the examination of the content, structure, and other features of documents to determine authenticity, origin, or any alterations.

Document Analyst: A forensic expert specialized in analyzing and reconstructing documents, identifying forgeries, and verifying authenticity.

Exemplar: A standard or model document used for comparison in forensic document analysis to identify the authenticity or derivativeness of another document.

Diacritics: Marks added to letters that change their pronunciation or context; in document analysis, examining diacritics can help in identifying forgeries or the original document's authenticity.

Forgery: The illegal act of producing a false document or altering a real one with the intent to deceive.

Fraudulence/Fraud: The wrongful or criminal deception intended to result in financial or personal gain, often involves forgery of documents.

Blind Forgery: A type of forgery created without any guiding material, often resulting in poor imitations of genuine signatures.

Simulated Forgery: A type of forgery where the forger attempts to imitate another person's handwriting or signature based on samples they have observed.

Traced Forgery: A method of forgery where the forger traces over an existing signature to create a replica, making it easier to produce deceptive documents.

Backhand Writing: A style of handwriting where the letters slant back to the left, which may have implications in analyzing authenticity in handwriting samples.

Obliteration: The act of completely erasing or destroying the content of a document, which can later be subjected to forensic analysis to reveal the original writing.

Indented Writing: Marks left on the pages beneath a document when something is written on the top page; forensics can analyze these impressions for evidence.

Watermark: A recognizable image or pattern in paper, originally used for identification of the manufacturer or authenticity, which can be crucial in document analysis.

Sizing: The treatment of paper to change its absorbency and texture, impacting how inks interact with the paper in document analysis.

Graphology: The study of handwriting, representing personality traits; sometimes used in forensic analysis for psychological profiling.

Qualitative Analysis: A method in forensic science that focuses on determining the type and characteristics of substances, rather than their quantities.

Quantitative Analysis: A method in forensic science aimed at determining the amounts or concentrations of substances present in a sample.

Questioned Document: Any document that is in dispute or under examination regarding its authenticity or origin.

N-Gram Tracing: A statistical analysis technique applied to writing samples for identifying authorship based on common sequences of letters or words.

Thin-Layer Chromatography: A technique used in forensic science to separate and identify compounds in a mixture, useful in analyzing inks and dyes used in document forgery.

Infrared Spectroscopy: An analytical technique used in forensic science to identify materials based on their absorbance of infrared light, aiding in analyzing inks and coatings on documents.