Forensic handwriting examination and human factors: Improving the practice through automation and expert training

Forensic handwriting examination is one of the most sophisticated and controversial in terms of the results objectivity. One reason for this is that the result of the examination is affected by the subjectivity of the expert. The article suggests a number of methods to reduce the impact of human factors on the results of handwriting examination. First of all, it is the development of quantitative techniques for handwriting analysis, allowing obtaining scientifically grounded results of the study. As an example of those techniques, technique for identification (verification) of the writer of the handwritten text is described. In addition, as a way to reduce the influence of the human factor, it is suggested to pay attention to improving the skills of existing experts and training of new experts for forensic handwriting examination. These problems can be partly solved by using presented automated workplace of forensic handwriting expert “FHWE v.1.0”.