THE EXAMINATION OF SHORT HANDWRITTEN RECORDS EXECUTED BY PERSONS OF THE ELDERLY AND SENILE AGE

Abstract

Nowadays, the objects of forensic handwriting analysis are often become short handwritten records of elderly people and senile. The study of such records is one of the most difficult when conducting handwriting examination. This is due to the nature of this object, which is often subjected to changes due to insufficient written practice, influence of age-related changes in the body or conditions common for the elderly people and senile, frequent execution of short handwritten records in unusual conditions, and sometimes with the help of other people, limitations in the studied graphic material. The article attempts to substantiate and systematize theoretical knowledge on the study of short handwritten records executed by elderly and senile people through analyzing the literature and forensic practice on the study of this type of objects, establishing individual patterns of handwriting, explaining the nature of diagnostic signs occurrence, determining the structure of the process for solving the mentioned tasks. Cases from practice and related problematic aspects of solving identification and diagnostic tasks are considered. The main characteristics of impaired ability (sensory, amnestic and motor aphasia) to write are given. Literature sources are analyzed, which consider the physiological mechanisms of the formation of writing skills and the features of their changes due to various conditions in elderly and senile people. Handwriting can undergo changes owing to aging of the body. Disorder of hand-eye coordination, conditions of the musculoskeletal system, nervous system, circulatory disorders, inherent for elderly and senile people, affect the stability of handwriting features. Testaments, contracts of sale and donation, bank documents are often signed by people of elderly and senile age shortly before death resulting from a serious long illness after experiencing such conditions as stroke or myocardial infarction. It is the aging of the body that is accompanied by deterioration in the state of health, impaired vision, muscle weakness, depletion of the nervous system, decreased mobility of the musculoskeletal system and impaired blood circulation. Features of writing motor skill functioning in the elderly and senile people lead to a slowdown in the tempo of movement, decrease in their amplitude and speed, decrease in the plasticity of movements. The correct ratio of such signs as proficiency and coordination of movements is of great importance. In addition, short handwritten records executed by the elderly and senile people contain a limited amount of graphic material. At the moment of executing a short recording, even under normal conditions, the performer needs a certain adaptation to a situation, which can not be performed while rare or occasional execution of a single short record. Therefore, the stability of a skill while executing short recording has an increased spread, and selective variability has low thresholds.