Graphology
Forensics and DNA: Graphology
Graphology entails the study of an individual's handwriting as theory or practice when it comes to inferring an individual's character, attitudes, disposition from their handwriting, graphology is generally termed a pseudoscience .this term is at times incorrectly used in reference to forensic document examination. Graphology has been marred with a lot of controversy for over a century. Supporters of graphology point out the anecdotal evidence of very many positive testimonies as the reason as to why it is used for evaluation of personality, most of the empirical studies has failed to show how valid the claims made by these supporters are. Handwriting analysis is a very tedious and methodical process which is based and relies on extensive knowledge of how people use letters, which characteristics of the letter formations are unique and the psychological process behind the specific handwriting. Ways through which an individual's fine motor skills affect an individual's handwriting and leave a clue on the identity of an author.
The primary basis of graphology as a science is the fact that everyone in the world has their own unique way of writing. When we were children in primary school, we learned writing based on a specific copy book that contains a style of writing so at first we probably all wrote in the same way as children of our age and location. With time, the writing characteristics learned in school, the specific style characteristics became an underlying method of the way we write. Therefore people developed individual characteristic that are unique and distinguish ones own handwriting from...
Therefore, just like fingerprints everyone's handwriting is quite unique and therefore can definitely be used for the purpose of identification.it is also important to note that a comparison of samples of handwritings does not necessarily have to give straightforward results that are unambiguous. Graphologists study variations in samples in order to establish if two or more different documents were actually written by the same person and thus identify the sample owner with an author who is known or a similar one.
Graphology is an increasingly used technique in forensics as well as the criminal justice system. Therefore graphology has numerous uses such as profiling whereby a company might take sample provided by applicants and go ahead to carry out a personality profile, matching the applicant's congruency with ideal psychological profile of the employees within the position. A person's profile consist of their behaviors, personality traits, and the motives behind their behaviors.in forensic psychology, profiling is useful when it comes to apprehension of criminals by making a list of the possible character traits and behaviors correlated with perpetrators who were apprehended previously. For instance if a known perpetrator is a heroin addict, investigators might go for suspect in places within the city where heroin users are known to hang out graphology can also be used clinically by some counselors and psychotherapists. This information is useful to investigators as they know where they will look and what they should expect when they apprehend the individuals. Forensic psychologists analyze handwriting for the…
