A handwriting specialist is a person who studies the science of handwriting. When examining handwriting patterns, a handwriting analyst relies on the belief that each person's handwriting is as unique as a snowflake or a fingerprint. People generally learn to write by learning the same letters using similar methods, but their handwriting changes as they grow up and flourish with individual changes. A handwriting specialist may be asked to work with questionable documents because the status of the documents is doubtful. Authorship may need to be verified or officials may need to know the authenticity of the documents to obtain confirmation that the documents were not forged.
Among the first document examinations performed by a handwriting specialist is the determination of which of the characteristics of the handwriting sample are due to which of the various handwriting methods taught to the subject, and which characteristics belong exclusively to the person whose handwriting is being examined, the latter being of the highest quality Significance in questionable documents. This facet of the job has been used to convict bank robbers and kidnappers, with one of the most famous cases of the 20. The 1932 abduction of the Lindbergh baby in Hopewell, New Jersey, in the early twentieth century. The kidnapper sent more than a dozen notes demanding ransom, and authorities were tasked with analyzing the handwriting on the notes to determine if it matched the man they suspected of the crime.
A handwriting specialist concluded that all the ransom bills were written by the same person, and he also concluded that the suspect Bruno Richard Hauptmann had written them, but in later years doubts were cast on the process by which a sample of Bruno's was obtained Hauptmann's handwriting for comparison. Since then, the approved method for collecting a handwriting sample in similar situations has been changed for better oversight. In another case, a handwriting specialist could help determine whether a celebrity's autograph is genuine or whether someone who bought it was fooled by a forgery.
Forensic document analysts take a long time to review handwriting samples and tend to be meticulous and thorough in their approach. Science is not infallible, however, as it is based on subjective analysis and is not as reliable as a fingerprint or DNA. One development that aims to make the process of handwriting analysis less subjective is the forensic information system for handwriting, a computer-controlled analysis. The conclusions of a handwriting specialist are not always admissible in court.
A forensic handwriting examiner is not the same as a graphologist, who also examines handwriting samples, but with a different objective. Graphology deals with handwriting with the aim of finding clues to a person's personality and character traits. Scientific handwriting analysts consider graphology to be an art rather than a science. Some people consider graphology to be pure fluff, but certain employers use it to screen job applicants, and sometimes law enforcement officers even use it to profile a suspect.