O. Posilskyi; O. Rodiukova; H. Shovkova

Summary

The article shows details the processes that occur in documents under the influence of external factors. It is noted that the external impact, depending on the duration and intensity of the action of extraneous factors, can lead to a change in the component composition of the requisites of documents, as a result, the composition of their components will not correspond to the actual time of applying these requisites.

It is formulated the notion of “artificial aging of documents” on the basis of the analysis of aging processes in documents. There are also generalized signs of the action of external factors that are not typical for the usual conditions for the storage of documents. It is indicated what should be understood as “signs of artificial aging” in documents for the purpose of unambiguous interpretation.

The results of the research are presented, in the course of which the signs of the influence of external factors on the document are revealed. In these specific cases, this led to an artificial aging of the documents and made it impossible to determine the time of execution of the researched records and signatures. At the same time, it is stressed that in the expert practice there are examples of examining documents in which signs of influence of extraneous factors are revealed, but such action did not lead to a change in the composition of dyes and volatile components of ballpoint pens. That is, the effect of external factors on the document, did not lead to the artificial aging of its requisites.

It is concluded that an aggressive external effect on the requisites of documents can be detected with the use of instrumental methods of analysis for uncharacteristic changes in their morphological and physicochemical characteristics. It is noted that to identify the signs of such an impact, there is a need to conduct complex expert studies.

When studying the aging processes in documents is revealed objective criteria for the suitability of artificially aged documents for further investigation in determining the time of performance of their requisites. It is established that in most cases the influence of external factors on the document does not interfere with the use of techniques for establishing the absolute time for the determination of handwritten notes and signatures, although it considerably complicates the conduct of such studies.