Cheating in College: Why Students Do It and What Educators Can Do About It

Integrity has been a topic of interest for thousands of years. Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics, the Code of Hammurabi, and many sacred writings cover ethics and promote honesty and integrity. In the modern world integrity, and specifically academic integrity, is a hot topic. With advances in students’ ability to copy and paste from Internet resources to advances in plagiarism detection software, new areas of cheating in college are emerging. Academic integrity among U.S. students, according to McCaber, Butterfield, and Treviño, is part of the larger discussion about integrity because dishonesty in college is related to dishonesty in their lives after college. This book covers two decades of quantitative research on student cheating in college, analyzes the results from several perspectives, and includes an exploration of data from research studies in high schools. The chapters cover prevalence, types, and methods of cheating; individual student characteristics and cheating; institutional factors and cheating; honor codes and cheating; the role of faculty in cheating; and end with a look at cheating in business and professional schools. The final chapter explores practical advice for faculty and administrators.