Documentary fraud: A vision from Portugal
Ana Guerreiro
University of Porto, Portugal
: Forensic Toxicol Pharmacol 2015, 4:4
Abstract
The present time has been marked by various types of crime and although little media coverage, the fraud has done grow the statistical data, much to blame for the social situation that the country is experiencing. Thus, the courts are filled with cases involving the forgery and counterfeiting of documents, which is an issue that only an expert in analysis of documents may be able to solve. At European level, Portugal remains at the top of the list in relation to fraudulent documents, followed by Italy and Spain. Concerning to the forensic expertise requested to the Laboratory of Scientific Police of Judicial Police in 2013 amounted to 34,425 applications which represents 13.9% of total handwriting. This country has few human resources to answer to the many request in which, sometimes could take up to 15 months. From a master study about Forgery and Counterfeiting documents, this presentation intends to do a panoramic vision about socio-demographic characteristics of offenders in Portugal such as age, sex, location, nationality, marital status, educational attainment and data relating to the process the number of expert requested by the courts, the time elapses from the request until the delivery of the expert report, punishment and the type of documents that were the subject of forensic analysis
Biography
Ana Guerreiro has a degree in Criminology from the Institute University of Maia and has won a Best Student Award in the academic year 2011-2012. She has completed her Postgraduate degree in Medical-Legal Sciences and Master’s degree in Forensic Medicine with a study about Forgery and Counterfeiting Documents. Since 2014, she is a Criminologist at UMAR, an NGO, where do criminal prevention in schools and develop some research work and the publication of articles in this area. She is also a Junior Researcher in UICCC-Criminology and Behavioural Sciences Research Unit and Founded the Criminology Student Association
ana.esteves.guerreiro@gmail.com
