eli5: How can handwriting analysis be useful in solving a case? Can’t the suspect simply switch up their writing style when under scrutiny?

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eli5: How can handwriting analysis be useful in solving a case? Can’t the suspect simply switch up their writing style when under scrutiny?

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Anonymous 0 Comments

What you can do is check whether the same person rote two different documents, what you can’t do is tell anything about the person who wrote the documents. Certain letter formation is difficult to hide, unless they radically change the writing like switching to block capitals.

Anonymous 0 Comments

Like many areas of forensic science, it’s a little unclear how valid it really is. Forensic scientists tend to be under a certain amount of pressure to produce evidence that supports a particular verdict, and lawyers have a strong incentive to emphasize and exaggerate evidence that seems to support their case, and downplay evidence that doesn’t, without sincerely questioning how valid it is. There have been some studies (e.g. [here](https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2119944119)) that have tested handwriting analysts and found that they are often reasonably accurate, but it’s very difficult to recreate the conditions of a real crime. You can instruct a participant in a study to try and copy someone else’s handwriting, but are they going to be as good as an experienced forger whose freedom is on the line? And is a forensic expert going to behave the same in a scientific study as they would in a criminal case?

Anonymous 0 Comments

It’s true that a person can try to change their writing style in an attempt to throw off a handwriting analysis, but it’s very difficult to completely alter one’s handwriting. Even if a person tries to change their writing style, there are still many unique characteristics of their handwriting that will remain consistent, such as the way they form certain letters or the overall rhythm of their writing. Additionally, forensic experts are trained to recognize the signs of a disguised handwriting, so they can often tell if a person has tried to alter their writing in an effort to mislead the analysis. Overall, while handwriting analysis is not foolproof, it can be a useful tool for forensic experts in solving a case.

Anonymous 0 Comments

You could obtain other writing samples written before the piece of writing you are investigating and see if they match, rather than relying on a suspect to provide a current sample once they’re already under suspicion.

Also, there are features of handwriting that persist even when a person tries to change their handwriting. And while a handwriting analysis may not be the nail in the coffin, it could help narrow or identify suspects