FYI Column
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Wednesday June 10th 1998
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The Written Statement as a Crime Scene: A Look at what The Clues Available in Handwritten Statements Can Reveal About "Who Did it?" by Gerald (Gary) R. Brown, MGA, BA, MS-Investigative Techniques.
Handwriting analysis as a predictor only works with reliability when one knows there is a serial killer and that serial killers handwriting is among the suspects. Then it can be very accurate in focusing on the most likely suspects earlier rather than later. That is worth repeating. Handwriting analysts can not predict how a person with certain characteristics will act in the future, but analysts can be very accurate in identifying the most likely when it is known there is an offender in the group of writing samples the analyst is asked to evaluate. Environmental factors act as the trigger for a person with the same chacteristics of a Ted Bundy. If the "trigger" never occurs that would "activate" the negative characteristics of a Ted Bundy, then it may well be that those so-called "negative" characteristics will actually be success motivators for the individual. If an analyst says they can tell you how a person will act with certainty, you have found yourself an unqualified analyst. Another use of handwriting analysis in the investigative business is the profiling of anonymous letter writers. A good analyst can often provide an educated guesstimate of the type of job the writer may have, the type of management style (if a manager), the likely way the person will interact with their superiors, peers and subordinates and sometimes additional clues as to degree of dangerousness, where a person is likely to live and any number of other clues dependent on what "evidence" the writer unsuspectingly reveals in the crime screen (AKA: Statement). Personality characteristics, especially when combined with Form Variance Analysis and Content Analysis can be extremely accurate and effective. Second:Form Variance Analysis is another form of handwriting analysis that much like Content Analysis, discussed later in this article, and can help separate those who are being truthful from those who may be concealing important facts relating to the investigation. Form Variance Analysis refers to changes in one or more of the following: slant, pressure, size, speed, spelling, margins and spacing. For example, if a person is relating what happened from their memory the writing generally flows along in a fairly consistent manner. But, when they reach the spot where they are going to lie or conceal important information, one or more of the above factors, such as slant, often changes. If it does, it is an indicator that this area needs to be carefully reviewed to insure some small piece of "evidence" has not been overlooked. For example, handwriting theory tells us that the more a persons writing slants to the right, the greater the emotional responsiveness of that individual will be.(There are other factors that can impact this, but for this discussion the general theory applies. If the person writing about his or her involvement in a murder normally slants their writing 45 degrees right from vertical, but when the writer reaches a place in the statement where the handwriting suddenly becomes vertical, one can deduce that the writer's emotions suddenly "left." The Statement Analyst should review the content and if it can't explain why the person's emotions suddenly "left," one has to assume that this is an area to probe further the full facts of what happened during the time surrounding that period in the writer's reality. Analysts often see the spacing widen at a point when the writer is "lying" about whatever it is the content analysts reveals. For example, if the person is writing the sentence "I did not leave my assigned area during the hours of 10-12 PM and the spacing suddenly expands between the words "not" and "leave" and between "of" and 10-12 PM, one has to suspect that the person did leave their post between those hours. The reason the person left may be important to the investigation or it may not, but it is important to find out why the writer felt it important to lie about it. The theory being that as the person approaches the point they are going to lie or mislead, their sub conscious knows they are about to lie and they also have to think a fraction of a second more about their lie they are making up rather than recalling directly from memory and during that split second the writing hand continues to move slightly forward leaving extra space between the crucial words. This technique is not fool-proof by any means, but, like the other techniques discussed in this article, is a "flag" to point out where the investigator needs to probe more thoroughly. The theory is related to the polygraph. When a person is about to mislead or lie to the interviewer, there are minor physiological changes in the body which impact the muscles, which, in turn, cause slight changes in the writing form. Information clues/evidence may be revealed by increased pressure, spelling problems with words that shouldn't be misspelled, a margin suddenly "popping out" to the left, a slowing of the speed of the writing, etc. When there are a series of names or numbers and one name or number suddenly is noticeably larger, or smaller, than the others, there is often a meaning behind these form variances. If the name is suddenly larger, it will likely mean that "name" has a greater meaning than the others to the writer and vice versa for the smaller name among larger names. Content Analysis (CA) is the third leg of the Statement Analysis tool and is the one part of the Statement Analysis process that can be routinely applied to both the recorded and/or written/printed word and also to the typewritten/computer printer generated "writing." Content Analysis is the evaluation of changes in words, sentences, phrases, paragraphs and pages to identify those who are "having problems" with what they are saying from those that are truthful, ie. recalling everything from memory. In other words separating those who are misleading or lying from the truth-tellers. The statements of people are systematically reviewed or "interrogated" as to their use or sometimes non-use of Pronouns (ie.changes from we to I), Verbs (ie. changes in verb tense), Nouns (ie. changes in language when talking about the same subject), extraneous information (ie. Doesn't answer the questions), lack of conviction (ie. "that's about it", I think, I believe, etc.) and balance within the statement (ie. the proper proportion of the statement devoted to the "prior to", "during" and the "after" of the incident.). Contamination: The most serious complication to obtaining a statement on which the Content Analysis techniques will uncover reliable clues is the contamination that occurs whenever the person writing the statement is questioned, counselled, interviewed or even listens to television or otherwise hears what others have to say about the incident. The longer it is before the suspect, victim or witness waits to give a statement, the more "contaminating" influences occur and the less reliable is the information given by the writer. For example, in the Jon Bonet Ramsey case in Colorado, where the parents are prime suspects (as this article is being prepared) the interview given by the parents to CNN news organization on January 1, 1997 is much more likely to be amenable to Statement Analysis than the news conference the parents participated in early May 1997. By early May, everything had been gone over so many times that the words uttered by the parents (John and Patsy Ramsey) could not be relied upon to accurately reflect valid clues as to guilt or innocence, no matter what they said short of a full confession. Any analysis might be very accurate, but it might also be totally inaccurate. Working together: When handwriting analysis/behavioral profiling techniques are combined with Form Variance Analysis and Content Analysis in evaluating an uncontaminated statement, the process is extremely accurate, when all three techniques point in one direction. Statement Analysis can be employed in almost any investigative type situation that arises. It can be used in violent crimes, paperwork frauds, loss of proprietary information, pre-employment selection, sexual/racial harassment, anonymous threatening letters, workers' compensation, due diligence, threatening phone calls and any other investigation. If you need to know more about a personality and/or whether or not a person is telling the truth or may be lying or withholding pertinent information Statement Analysis can and is being employed every day to help solve problems in a more efficient and effective way.
Wednesday June 10th 1998
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The Written Statement as a Crime Scene: A Look at what The Clues Available in Handwritten Statements Can Reveal About "Who Did it?" by Gerald (Gary) R. Brown, MGA, BA, MS-Investigative Techniques.
Handwriting analysis as a predictor only works with reliability when one knows there is a serial killer and that serial killers handwriting is among the suspects. Then it can be very accurate in focusing on the most likely suspects earlier rather than later. That is worth repeating. Handwriting analysts can not predict how a person with certain characteristics will act in the future, but analysts can be very accurate in identifying the most likely when it is known there is an offender in the group of writing samples the analyst is asked to evaluate. Environmental factors act as the trigger for a person with the same chacteristics of a Ted Bundy. If the "trigger" never occurs that would "activate" the negative characteristics of a Ted Bundy, then it may well be that those so-called "negative" characteristics will actually be success motivators for the individual. If an analyst says they can tell you how a person will act with certainty, you have found yourself an unqualified analyst. Another use of handwriting analysis in the investigative business is the profiling of anonymous letter writers. A good analyst can often provide an educated guesstimate of the type of job the writer may have, the type of management style (if a manager), the likely way the person will interact with their superiors, peers and subordinates and sometimes additional clues as to degree of dangerousness, where a person is likely to live and any number of other clues dependent on what "evidence" the writer unsuspectingly reveals in the crime screen (AKA: Statement). Personality characteristics, especially when combined with Form Variance Analysis and Content Analysis can be extremely accurate and effective. Second:Form Variance Analysis is another form of handwriting analysis that much like Content Analysis, discussed later in this article, and can help separate those who are being truthful from those who may be concealing important facts relating to the investigation. Form Variance Analysis refers to changes in one or more of the following: slant, pressure, size, speed, spelling, margins and spacing. For example, if a person is relating what happened from their memory the writing generally flows along in a fairly consistent manner. But, when they reach the spot where they are going to lie or conceal important information, one or more of the above factors, such as slant, often changes. If it does, it is an indicator that this area needs to be carefully reviewed to insure some small piece of "evidence" has not been overlooked. For example, handwriting theory tells us that the more a persons writing slants to the right, the greater the emotional responsiveness of that individual will be.(There are other factors that can impact this, but for this discussion the general theory applies. If the person writing about his or her involvement in a murder normally slants their writing 45 degrees right from vertical, but when the writer reaches a place in the statement where the handwriting suddenly becomes vertical, one can deduce that the writer's emotions suddenly "left." The Statement Analyst should review the content and if it can't explain why the person's emotions suddenly "left," one has to assume that this is an area to probe further the full facts of what happened during the time surrounding that period in the writer's reality. Analysts often see the spacing widen at a point when the writer is "lying" about whatever it is the content analysts reveals. For example, if the person is writing the sentence "I did not leave my assigned area during the hours of 10-12 PM and the spacing suddenly expands between the words "not" and "leave" and between "of" and 10-12 PM, one has to suspect that the person did leave their post between those hours. The reason the person left may be important to the investigation or it may not, but it is important to find out why the writer felt it important to lie about it. The theory being that as the person approaches the point they are going to lie or mislead, their sub conscious knows they are about to lie and they also have to think a fraction of a second more about their lie they are making up rather than recalling directly from memory and during that split second the writing hand continues to move slightly forward leaving extra space between the crucial words. This technique is not fool-proof by any means, but, like the other techniques discussed in this article, is a "flag" to point out where the investigator needs to probe more thoroughly. The theory is related to the polygraph. When a person is about to mislead or lie to the interviewer, there are minor physiological changes in the body which impact the muscles, which, in turn, cause slight changes in the writing form. Information clues/evidence may be revealed by increased pressure, spelling problems with words that shouldn't be misspelled, a margin suddenly "popping out" to the left, a slowing of the speed of the writing, etc. When there are a series of names or numbers and one name or number suddenly is noticeably larger, or smaller, than the others, there is often a meaning behind these form variances. If the name is suddenly larger, it will likely mean that "name" has a greater meaning than the others to the writer and vice versa for the smaller name among larger names. Content Analysis (CA) is the third leg of the Statement Analysis tool and is the one part of the Statement Analysis process that can be routinely applied to both the recorded and/or written/printed word and also to the typewritten/computer printer generated "writing." Content Analysis is the evaluation of changes in words, sentences, phrases, paragraphs and pages to identify those who are "having problems" with what they are saying from those that are truthful, ie. recalling everything from memory. In other words separating those who are misleading or lying from the truth-tellers. The statements of people are systematically reviewed or "interrogated" as to their use or sometimes non-use of Pronouns (ie.changes from we to I), Verbs (ie. changes in verb tense), Nouns (ie. changes in language when talking about the same subject), extraneous information (ie. Doesn't answer the questions), lack of conviction (ie. "that's about it", I think, I believe, etc.) and balance within the statement (ie. the proper proportion of the statement devoted to the "prior to", "during" and the "after" of the incident.). Contamination: The most serious complication to obtaining a statement on which the Content Analysis techniques will uncover reliable clues is the contamination that occurs whenever the person writing the statement is questioned, counselled, interviewed or even listens to television or otherwise hears what others have to say about the incident. The longer it is before the suspect, victim or witness waits to give a statement, the more "contaminating" influences occur and the less reliable is the information given by the writer. For example, in the Jon Bonet Ramsey case in Colorado, where the parents are prime suspects (as this article is being prepared) the interview given by the parents to CNN news organization on January 1, 1997 is much more likely to be amenable to Statement Analysis than the news conference the parents participated in early May 1997. By early May, everything had been gone over so many times that the words uttered by the parents (John and Patsy Ramsey) could not be relied upon to accurately reflect valid clues as to guilt or innocence, no matter what they said short of a full confession. Any analysis might be very accurate, but it might also be totally inaccurate. Working together: When handwriting analysis/behavioral profiling techniques are combined with Form Variance Analysis and Content Analysis in evaluating an uncontaminated statement, the process is extremely accurate, when all three techniques point in one direction. Statement Analysis can be employed in almost any investigative type situation that arises. It can be used in violent crimes, paperwork frauds, loss of proprietary information, pre-employment selection, sexual/racial harassment, anonymous threatening letters, workers' compensation, due diligence, threatening phone calls and any other investigation. If you need to know more about a personality and/or whether or not a person is telling the truth or may be lying or withholding pertinent information Statement Analysis can and is being employed every day to help solve problems in a more efficient and effective way.
