Forgery

Forgery is the offense of falsely making, altering, or signing a document, signature, or other instrument with the intent to defraud, covering conduct ranging from signing another person's name on a check without authorization to fabricating an entire legal, financial, or identifying document. The offense requires both the false making or alteration itself and an intent to deceive or defraud someone relying on the document's authenticity, distinguishing forgery from an honest mistake in preparing a document and from the separate but related offense of uttering, knowingly passing off a forged document as genuine, which many jurisdictions charge as its own distinct crime alongside or instead of forgery itself. Forgery statutes historically focused on financial instruments such as checks, currency, and negotiable instruments, but modern codes extend the offense to a very wide range of documents, including government identification, academic credentials, wills, deeds, and contracts, reflecting how central document authenticity is to modern commercial and civil life. Document examination, a recognized forensic discipline analyzing handwriting, ink, paper, printing methods, and other physical and digital characteristics of a questioned document, is the primary forensic tool used to investigate and prove forgery, and the offense remains closely studied alongside counterfeiting and fraud as a core category of white-collar and document-based crime.