Review: Forged, Anonymous and Suspect Documents
| Published date | 01 April 1931 |
| Date | 01 April 1931 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/0032258X3100400217 |
REVIEWS
FORGED,
ANONYMOUS AND
SUSPECT
DOCUMENTS.
By
CAPTAIN
ARTHUR
J.
QUIRKE,
B.A., Handwriting Analyst to the Depart-
ment of Justice, Attorney-General and Police Headquarters, Irish Free
State, with a Foreword by
JOHN
A.
COSTELLO,
K.C., Attorney-General,
Irish Free State. 15s. net. (George Routledge &Sons. 1930.)
THERE
are not many who are qualified to write on handwriting in its relation
to crime, and consequently, as is pointed
out
by Captain Quirke, books in
English on
the
question
are'
pitifully few.' Therefore his recent addition
to these would particularly call for attention here, even
if
it had not avowedly
been meant for members of the legal profession and police officers.
Chapter
XIII
is
headed'
Police Investigations,' and among other infor-
mation gives useful details of methods which should be adopted when speci-
mens of handwriting are being taken from suspects. These are worthy of
very careful consideration, for, as a rule, the help of an expert is not invited
until the preliminary work has been done. Captain Quirke, however, thinks
that assistance might be asked for and given, unofficially, at an earlier stage.
Two important suggestions are also made, one, that in each police division,
a detective with a liking for the work should be trained to examine hand-
writing, though not with the object of making him into an expert witness.
Such experience it is claimed would largely increase his powers of concen-
tration, observation and deduction, and he would acquire a sound grasp of
the help which the photographer, the microscopist, the physicist, and the
chemist could lend to the work of investigating crime in general.
The
second proposal is
that
as fingerprints are kept by the police, so also col-
lections of the ordinary handwriting of people in the district should be
gradually made by them, as is already done in some places.
The
discussion of '
Evidence'
is, as may be expected, of special value
to expert witnesses and to lawyers,
but
it incidentally deals with a question
of great public interest, namely, the great disabilities under which an accused
person often labours unless he is rich, and the plea is
put
forward
that
his
defence should be a matter for the State as well as his prosecution.
A great part of the volume is devoted to showing how handwriting
should be studied, and it forms indeed a welcome textbook on the subject.
At the same time many cognate matters are considered, ink and
paper;
methods of ruling, printing, and typewriting; alterations and obliterations ;
the evidence
that
may be gleaned from carbon sheets and blotting paper, and
the use of ultra-violet light.
This
latter may at times be most helpful,
but
surely Captain Quirke is making too great a claim for it when he says that
there seems to be no invisible ink which will evade its filtered rays.
The
book is the result of an immense amount of hard work, a lively
endeavour to take advantage of every modern scientific method of investi-
gation, and a desire to secure testimony which is both competent and honest.
In
its production there are few blemishes: one finds a misprint here and
there and some split infinitives.
It
would have been better had the illustra-
311
Get this document and AI-powered insights with a free trial of vLex and Vincent AI
Get Started for FreeStart Your Free Trial of vLex and Vincent AI, Your Precision-Engineered Legal Assistant
-
Access comprehensive legal content with no limitations across vLex's unparalleled global legal database
-
Build stronger arguments with verified citations and CERT citator that tracks case history and precedential strength
-
Transform your legal research from hours to minutes with Vincent AI's intelligent search and analysis capabilities
-
Elevate your practice by focusing your expertise where it matters most while Vincent handles the heavy lifting
Start Your Free Trial of vLex and Vincent AI, Your Precision-Engineered Legal Assistant
-
Access comprehensive legal content with no limitations across vLex's unparalleled global legal database
-
Build stronger arguments with verified citations and CERT citator that tracks case history and precedential strength
-
Transform your legal research from hours to minutes with Vincent AI's intelligent search and analysis capabilities
-
Elevate your practice by focusing your expertise where it matters most while Vincent handles the heavy lifting
Start Your Free Trial of vLex and Vincent AI, Your Precision-Engineered Legal Assistant
-
Access comprehensive legal content with no limitations across vLex's unparalleled global legal database
-
Build stronger arguments with verified citations and CERT citator that tracks case history and precedential strength
-
Transform your legal research from hours to minutes with Vincent AI's intelligent search and analysis capabilities
-
Elevate your practice by focusing your expertise where it matters most while Vincent handles the heavy lifting
Start Your Free Trial of vLex and Vincent AI, Your Precision-Engineered Legal Assistant
-
Access comprehensive legal content with no limitations across vLex's unparalleled global legal database
-
Build stronger arguments with verified citations and CERT citator that tracks case history and precedential strength
-
Transform your legal research from hours to minutes with Vincent AI's intelligent search and analysis capabilities
-
Elevate your practice by focusing your expertise where it matters most while Vincent handles the heavy lifting
Start Your Free Trial of vLex and Vincent AI, Your Precision-Engineered Legal Assistant
-
Access comprehensive legal content with no limitations across vLex's unparalleled global legal database
-
Build stronger arguments with verified citations and CERT citator that tracks case history and precedential strength
-
Transform your legal research from hours to minutes with Vincent AI's intelligent search and analysis capabilities
-
Elevate your practice by focusing your expertise where it matters most while Vincent handles the heavy lifting