Abstract

This study considered whether determinations could be made as to the age and gender of a person from samples of their handwriting, and if so, the nature of the cues employed. The present study considered the extent to which stylistic features (present at a greater frequency in cursive handwriting than in block printing) contributed to discrimination over and above other cues such as line quality features (present in both styles of handwriting). A standard text letter of 200 words was used to collect 40 handwriting samples differing on the basis of age and gender of the writer and handwriting style. Untrained handwriting judges consisting of 21 females and 21 males made age and gender judgements from the handwriting samples. The results indicated that age group could be determined from handwriting by untrained handwriting judges better than gender and that cues provided by stylistic features were important in these determinations. However, it is likely that factors such as line quality are also contributing to such judgements The results do not support practical application in forensic examinations.