What is a Forensic Document Examiner?

You have seen them on your favorite CSI TV show. They are the meticulous forensic document examiners who scrutinize paperwork such as forged money, ransom notes, and suspicious handwriting. Have you ever wondered what a forensic document examiner does and what the educational requirements are to become one?

In this article, I will explain what the job description of a forensic document examiner entails and what kind of educational training that candidates must undergo to be successful in this profession.

If you love reading magazines, books, and letters, the highly specialized job of a forensic document examiner may be the career for you. The job responsibilities of a forensic document examiner are to study documents and other handwritten and printed materials with a knack for determining their legitimacy, age, and authorship. A successful candidate must be able to have good eyesight, lots of patience, extreme attention to detail, and enough intestinal fortitude to work long hours by himself. It is required that you are skillful in language and grammar. You must know how to use a camera to take photographs of the documents you are studying. Finally, you must have working knowledge of current laboratory testing procedures.

To get into this field, specific educational training is not required. However, you are expected to be board certified by the American Board of Forensic Document Examiners (ABFDE). You must meet their standards by earning any college degree and acquiring on-the-job experience in the field. If you have a college degree in chemistry, any other laboratory science, or forensic science, your education can be of great benefit to you. Chemical testing is at the heart of the job of a forensic document examiner.

To gain hands-on experience, you must seek employment in the questioned-documents laboratory where you can learn everything you need to know as an apprentice. Several federal law enforcement agencies such as the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms (BATF); the CIA; U.S. Postal Inspection Service; U.S. Secret Service; IRS; and any of the branches of the military maintain a questioned-documents laboratory. Many state and local law enforcement agencies also have questioned-documents sections in their crime laboratories.

Experts such as forensic document examiners use many scientific procedures to help solve a crime. Their efforts help bring an offender to justice and bring closure to the families of the victims.

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Handbook of Forensic Toxicology for Medical Examiners $89.95 The Handbook of Forensic Toxicology for Medical Examiners is a concise handbook referencing the most common toxic substances and their levels of toxicity, making it an ideal text for quick confirmation in the field or in the lab.

Crime Science: Methods of Forensic Detection $15.22 A book such as this is long overdue in the field of forensic investigation. Most offerings are either highly technical or rather superficial -- an odd situation today when millions of television viewers slaver over the details of crimes and trials.Nationally respected authors Joe Nickell and John Fischer offer an introduction to the technical work of firearms experts, document examiners, fingerprint technicians, medical examiners, and forensic anthropologists. In doing so they avoid the oversimplified approach of most texts aimed at the lay reader, writing in prose clear and understandable to the nontechnical specialist.Nickell and Fischer provide step-by-step descriptions of classifying a fingerprint and performing an autopsy, and describe the science underlying DNA profiling and toxicological analysis. Each chapter closes with a major case study, revealing how these concepts work in practice. Rounded out with brief histories of all the forensic sciences, Crime Science is likely to remain an indispensable addition to the bookshelf for years to come.

Practical Forensic Microscopy (Hardcover) $69.78 Forensic Microscopy: A Laboratory Manual will provide the student with a practical overview and understanding of the various microscopes and microscopic techniques employed within the field of forensic science. Each laboratory experiment has been carefully designed to cover the variety of evidence disciplines within the forensic science field with carefully set out objectives, explanations of each topic and worksheets to help students compile and analyse their results. The emphasis is placed on the practical aspects of the analysis to enrich student understanding through hands on experience. The experiments move from basic through to specialised and have been developed to cover a variety of evidence disciplines within forensic science field. The emphasis is placed on techniques currently used by trace examiners. This unique, forensic focused, microscopy laboratory manual provides objectives for each topic covered with experiments designed to reinforce what has been learnt along with end of chapter questions, report requirements and numerous references for further reading. Impression evidence such as fingerprints, shoe tread patterns, tool marks and firearms will be analysed using simple stereomicroscopic techniques. Body fluids drug and trace evidence (e.g. paint glass hair fibre) will be covered by a variety of microscopes and specialized microscopic techniques.