Graphological studies (expertise) in Kiev, Ukraine. The most reactionary trend in graphology was the teaching of the head of the anthropological school of criminal law Lombroso, set out in 1895 in the “Guide to Graphology.” Lombroso recommended some features of handwriting to use to determine the so-called “born criminals”. In particular, he divided the handwriting of criminals into two large groups: the handwriting of murderers, robbers, robbers and the handwriting of thieves.
This naive, doctrinal and ideological doctrine, which was essentially political in nature, was repeatedly criticized by Soviet criminalists.
Interest from a scientific point of view is the work of modern graphologists. Modern graphology greatly improved the analysis of handwriting. In their numerous experiments, graphologists use the data of other sciences. Graphology is now closely connected with medicine, in particular with diagnostics.
In 1935, the handwriting expert Alfred Kafner, who works in the Austrian Ministry of Justice, after a series of observations came to the conclusion that there is a direct relationship between cancer and handwriting. Kafner studied more than 35,000 signatures and, based on their analysis, claimed to be able to predict cancer in handwriting with an accuracy of 97%. In the 1930s, Hungarian graphologists studied the handwriting of more than 2,000 children with abnormal psyches aged 10 to 18 years.
In the process of analyzing manuscripts, regularities were established in the deviation of handwriting, depending on the state of the psyche. Researchers have proposed to treat children (to change the child’s psyche) through certain changes in handwriting (the so-called graphotherapy).
They believed that handwriting can excite people’s nerves or soothe them.
According to American graphologists, more than 500 US firms use handwriting analysis to determine the professional characteristics of a person newly recruited or promoted. European firms have begun to use graphology since the beginning of the 20th century. In Germany, Denmark, France, firms use graphology for. Determination of professional suitability. Currently, graphology is taught in Germany, at the universities of Hamburg, Munich and others. The newest courses are taught at the Sorbonne (France), at the universities of Bern, Zurich (Switzerland) and a number of other European countries. In the United States, the course of graphology is taught at the New York University, at the Social School of Research. In some universities, graphology is studied after completing a course in psychology; In others it is read as part of a medical course.
The works of modern graphologists represent a definite scientific interest for Soviet scientists – handwriters who are engaged in non-identification tasks: the establishment of unusual conditions for the manuscript, the state of the person at the time of writing, the establishment of sex, age, profession, etc.
Especially not stopping at the history of the development of forensic examination of letters in Russia in the pre-revolutionary period, we only note that due to the conservatism and inertness of the judiciary and political system, forensic knowledge developed slowly; The achievements of science and technology were poorly used.
All the long period of development of the Soviet criminalistic examination of the letter, according to VF Orlova, is “a process of scientific investigation of the laws of writing and handwriting based on a set of knowledge of various fields of science, primarily of a natural profile, in order to create and improve the methods of forensic examination Handwriting. ” The study of writing is the task of specialists in many fields of knowledge. Handwriters, like no other experts in the field of forensic expertise, were lucky in the commonwealth with scientists from other specialties. Now handwriting is an object of research not only for criminalists, forensic experts, but also for physicians, physiologists, psychologists and other specialists.