Experts of Kyiv Scientific Research Institute of Forensic Expertise, namely: Iryna Bilous, Head of the Department of Handwriting Research of the Laboratory of Criminalistics and Victoriia Kulykovska, Head of the Department for Technical Research of Documents of the Laboratory of Criminalistics became participants in the 18th Wroclaw Symposium of Questioned Document Examination.
The organizers of the event were the Department of Forensic Sciences Faculty of Law, Administration and Economics, University of the University Wroclaw (Poland) together with representatives of the Polish printing company in Warsaw (an agency specializing in polycarbonate production).
18th Wroclaw Symposium of Questioned Document Examination is a specialized scientific event that takes place cyclically every 2 years in Wroclaw since the 80’s years of the last century.
Together with Ukrainian experts, the event was attended by representatives of leading Polish universities, experts and specialists from research institutions, including the Institute of Forensic Expertise in Krakow, the Central Criminalistics Laboratory of the Main Police Directorate in Warsaw, the Polish Forensic Society, the experts of the forensic laboratories of the provincial police departments, the criminalistics laboratories of the Customs Board, etc., as well as scientists and experts in the field of document research from countries such as the United Kingdom, Austria , Czech Republic, Greece, Italy, Holland, Russia, Germany, India, Latvia, Romania, Ukraine, Lithuania, Israel, USA, Mexico, Argentina, Brazil, etc.
Representatives of the related criminal disciplines were involved in joint work for the effective communication: criminal process, civil process, criminology, psychology, psychiatry as well as chemistry and physics.
An important indicator of the Symposium’s demand for practical workers in law enforcement agencies, justice and other legal professions was the participation in the conference of representatives of legal professions – lawyers, legal advisers and notaries.
In parallel with the work of the conference there was an exhibition of special equipment, during which the participants had an opportunity to get acquainted with the latest technology documents for research.
The following reports were presented during the working sessions of the 18th Wroclaw Symposium of Questioned Document Examination:
- new methods in handwriting and questioned document
- examination;
- document security features and verification;
- Contemporary trends in questioned document examination;
- handwriting examination versus graphology;
- examination of initials and graphometry;
- pathology in handwriting examination;
- examination of signatures;
- specific character of testament examination;
- current issues in questioned document examination
- (physical and chemical analysis of paper, inks, toners,
- ink dating);
- Supervision of expert witness qualifications.
According to Iryna Bilous, Head of the Department of Handwriting Research of the Laboratory of Criminalistics discussions on each of the presented reports became particularly useful.
“The participation of scientists and specialists who represented not only Europe has allowed to make a comparative analysis of the general level and practice of researching documents in many countries of the world, to identify the main common problems and find ways to solve them”, said Victoriia Kulykovska, Head of the Department for Technical Research of Documents of the Laboratory of Criminalistics.
The experts of KFI highlighted the interesting reports of representatives from the Republic of Malta with a story about the new legislative changes regarding the research of documents in their country, Polish professor Miroslav Ovots, Polish handwriting theorist, the speech of the Italian colleague Francesco Dellavalle who presented a report on measuring the depth of relief lines using a 3D profilometer.
By concluding the Symposium, the organizers thanked the participants for their work and invited to the next meeting which will be held in June 2020.
In general, the trip facilitated the exchange of experience with leading foreign specialists in the field of handwriting and technical research of documents and made a definite step towards the development of international cooperation of Kyiv Scientific Research Institute of Forensic Expertise.
