FORENSIC EXPERTISE OF SIGNATURES AND HANDWRITING - MULTIDISCIPLINARY APPROACH

Abstract

Forensic expertise of signatures and handwriting is a very important activity in criminalistics. It reveals whether the defendant is the author of the disputed text or has signed the disputed document. This type of expertise is most often used in cases when it is necessary to prove the existence of the criminal offense of forging a document, but also in many other cases (such as expertise of suicide letters or contracts), which indicates the need for a multidisciplinary approach to  exploring of this kind of expertise.This paper presents the basic characteristics of this form of expertise and indicates the difficulties that may arise in practice. The aim of this paper is to identify opportunities for further development of signature and handwriting expertise in theory and practice, as a powerful tool for detecting many crimes and their perpetrators.