The Importance of the Quantitative Criterion of the Compartive Material

Abstract

The comparative material of an expertise in Forensic Document Examination should meet the methodological requirements in order to create a stable and safe point of reference in the comparison between the suspected document and the known exemplars of the involved person(s). Among the criteria that must be taken into consideration, the quantity of specimens remains of crucial importance in order to cover the whole frame of graphic variability of the authentic hand. In the case of an amplified range of graphic variation of the writer, having at our disposal much more comparative material becomes more demanding, since identifying the writer necessarily means that we have to find all his particular graphic characteristics in the suspected document, as shown in the known specimens.