Examination of Commercial Printing Defects to Assess Common Origin, Batch Variation, and Error Rate

• NCJ Number: 229695
• Journal: Jounal of Forensic Sciences Volume: 55 Issue: 1 Dated: January 2010 Pages: 136-140
• Author(s): Gerald M. LaPorte, M.S.F.S.; Joseph C. Stephens, M.S.F.S.; Amanda K. Beuchel, M.S.F.S.
• Date Published: January 2010
• Length: 5 pages
• Publication Format: Article
• Publication Type: Report (Study/Research)
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America
• Note: Presented in part at the 60th Annual Meeting of the American Academy of Forensic Sciences, February 17-23, 2008, in Washington, DC.

Annotation

The examination of printing defects, or imperfections, found on printed or copied documents has been recognized as a generally accepted approach for linking questioned documents to a common source. This research paper will highlight the results from two mutually exclusive studies.

Abstract

The first involved the examination and characterization of printing defects found in a controlled production run of 500,000 envelopes bearing text and images. It was concluded that printing defects are random occurrences and that morphological differences can be used to identify variations within the same production batch. The second part incorporated a blind study to assess the error rate of associating randomly selected envelopes from different retail locations to a known source. The examination was based on the comparison of printing defects in the security patterns found in some envelopes. The results demonstrated that it is possible to associate envelopes to a common origin with a 0 percent error rate. 6 figures, 1 table, and 9 references (Published abstract)