Forensic handwriting examination and graphology: current issues of the theory and practice

Introduction: forensic handwriting examination is of great importance in the judicial proceedings and other aspects of law enforcement activities. The fulfillment of their tasks is significantly influenced by the achievements of graphology, which is ambiguously evaluated by the forensic community. In this regard, the authors of the research work set the goal to investigate the formation, development and current state of handwriting theory, the possibility of using it in criminalistics and forensics. Methods: the methodological framework for the research is the methods of scientific knowledge, among which the main place is occupied by the methods of historicism, systematicity, observation, comparison, analysis, synthesis, analogy, et c. Results: grounded in the work the author ’s position is based on the opinion of the competent scientific community about the pseudoscientific nature of modern graphology, which does not allow using it when solving the problems of judicial handwriting examination. On the basis of the comparative analysis the main features of this theory are highlighted: commercial orientation, the absence of serious scientific background, etc. The question is raised about the absence of a direct, rigidly deterministic relationship between the features of handwriting and personality. Conclusions: the study confirms the immutability of the speculative nature of graphology, which has not yet reached the level of a science and continues to be a self-proclaimed art. It includes a number of utopian theories what precludes the use of its potential in forensic handwriting examination when establishing the facts that have evidentiary and orienting meaning.