Is Cheating in a Class a Victimless Crime?

Is Cheating in a Class a Victimless Crime?

Cheating is defined as an “act dishonestly or unfairly in order to gain an advantage, esp. in a game or examination” (Webster 2013). Cheating is very common in academic institutions, such as high schools and colleges. There are no age groups exempt from academic dishonesty, with no exceptions from high and low achievers (McCabe, Butterfield, Trevino 2012). With more pressure to perform in school to get into college, and more students attending college than ever before makes one more tempted to engage in academic dishonesty (Gillen 2012).

A study conducted in 2010 found that 60.8% of students surveyed claimed to have cheating and only 16.5% felt bad about it (Scheff 2010). It was also reported that 24.6% of those students intentionally plagiarized. When grades where compared of those that have cheated and those that claimed to have not cheated, the ones who cheated had an average GPA of 3.41 while those that do not cheat have a GPA of 2.85 (Scheff 2010).

Cheating in some schools has become a way of life. At Stuyvesant High School in New York City, ranked one of the best high schools in the nation, cheating is in the norm (Crotty 2012). The students plagued with the pressures of getting into Harvard, and being the best have adopted an unofficial motto of “school is a team effort”. It was also discovered that some students would pay others to take the SAT for them in hopes of making them more competitive in the eyes of the college admissions officers (Crotty 2012).

Recently, there have been other ways of cheating apart from the traditional ways. Typical ways of cheating have included writing answers on the back of water bottle labels, or on their forearm and covering it up with a long sleeve shirt. Other ways include the use of note cards inside of pens, whispering the answers to a neighbor or even using the back of a calculator sleeve, but recently students have been using a new undetectable technique. Students have begun to use “Neuroenhancing Drugs” in order to allow them to focus more on task and allow them to be more productive. Adderall is the drug prescribed to those who have been diagnosed with attention deficit disorder, however the number of those who use Adderall for nontherapeutic reasons have increased in the recent years (Hanson, C., Burton, S., Giraud-Carrier, C., West, J., Barnes, M., & Hansen, B. 2013).

According to Britain’s Academy of Medical Sciences, the use of study drugs for nontherapeutic reasons is characterized as the same form of cheating as using steroids in sports (Talbot 2009). They argue that those who use Adderall that do not need it are getting a leg up on those who do need it, and have considered a school wide ban on the drug (Talbot 2009).

When students take Adderall for nontherapeutic reasons, they are getting an advantage over the students that need to use the drug in order to function in school (Jenkins 2007). They are also hurting themselves, by using Adderall as a cram drug and not getting the full affect that studying would have provided students if they had better study habits and time management skills in the first place (Jenkins 2007).

In the recent years there has been an increase in the ways that students are able to cheat. There have been great advances the way students can access resources. Some Resources can fit in the palm of the students’ hands to allow them a quick answer to a tough question such as smart phones and tablet computers. With the introduction of Google glasses, it allows the wearer to surf the web and discretely find answers that they need. These devices have also allowed for faster communication between students, rather than passing notes in class with answers on them, making their detection almost impossible.

With the promise of a higher grade point average, as well as better chancing into getting into a good college, or Master’s program, new drugs on the market to make studying easier, and with over half of the student body doing it, what’s the big deal about cheating and who exactly is it hurting, and who is really the victim?

Cheating hurts everyone. Cheating hurts those that do not cheat. Cheating hurts the teacher which gives false feedback on test and does not know that their students do not understand the material. Cheating also hurts the person that is cheating. Cheating is not a victimless crime. It creates an unfair advantage to those who do cheat and hurt those that do not cheat. Cheaters can sometimes set an unrealistic curve on a test and lower the other student’s grade that would have been higher if the cheater didn’t obtain a higher score that they would have.

By raising the curve on the test they have hurt the entire class and if consistently done, they could hurt the classes GPA and lowered their semester and school GPA as well. It is also unfair to the students who invested time and effort into learning and memorizing the material for another student to get a higher grade than them by cheating.

Cheating isn’t just limited to academics or sports; in the real world, cheating can also occur. They are called “White Collared Crimes”. According to the FBI, white-collar crimes include a wide range of frauds committed by government and business professionals. White-collar crimes can ruin companies, wipe out the life savings of families, and cost billions of dollars to investors (FBI 2014).

Plagiarizing today has become as simple as copy and paste, and when students plagiarize another work claiming it as their own, they have hurt the author of that work by not allow them to have the proper credit from their work and wasting their time as if it was for nothing, making their work less valuable to the author. Schools have begun to crack down on plagiarism by using websites such as Turnitin.com which compares the paper that was turned in by a student to thousands of other papers from different students that were also turned in and give the instructor a feedback score which will notify the instructor if there is a high percentage of similar text. This allows the instructor to go in and review the flagged paper to the source of the text to make a judgment as to whether or not plagiarism occurred.

There are other methods in controlling cheating at school. At the University of Central Florida, they have created a state-of-the-art testing center which allows proctors to monitor the students testing time with an overhead camera, as well as record what is happening on a student’s test computer, which can be both burned to a CD to be used as evidence later (Gabriel 2011).

Other ways schools have recently tried to control cheating are by making students take an online tutorial over cheating and plagiarism and putting emphasis on how it’s morally wrong and unfair in hopes that students will make it an even playing field for all students who are trying to get ahead in colleges.

At Missouri State University, if a student is found guilty of cheating by the instructor, the instructor can impose a sanction on that student (MSU 2008). Sanctions are specified in the course policy statement of the instructors course and could include any or all of the following: denying credit on an assignment and/or examination; requiring additional assignments and/or examinations; lowering the student’s course grade; issuing a failing course grade (“F”); and issuing a failing course grade of “XF”, which indicates that this failing grade was due to academic dishonesty. The grade “XF” shall be treated as an “F” grade for the purposes of grade point average, course repeatability, and determination of academic standing (MSU 2008). There is an appeal process for the students who want to challenge the accusation of cheating.

If students are found guilty of addition counts of cheating, even if it was their first time in a different course, the Academic Integrity Council can call a hearing to see whether additional sanctions need to be applied to the student (MSU 2008). These sanctions are usually more sever and can include: XF Grade; denial of privilege to hold office in any student organization; required service to the University and/or required service to the community; recommendation to the Provost for suspension or expulsion; recommendation to the Provost that a degree already granted be revoked, even if all degree requirements are met (MSU 2008).

With all the ways to cheat in school, whether it be writing the questions down for a friend, sending text messages in class, taking Adderall to help cram when it is not needed, or whatever way a person wants to cheat, it creates and unfair advantage over the other students. This ultimately hurts them because they invested time and energy to get the grade they got, while a cheater was able to get a higher grade doing a fraction of the work, and potentially hurting any curve that may be given. When you plagiarize, it also hurts the authors from whom you stole their ideas or work, and lowers the value of their work.

Works Citied:

Academic Integrity Policy. (2008). InMissouri State University. Retrieved January 30, 2014

Cheating. (1997). InMerriam-Webster Dictionary. Retrieved January 11, 2014, from Google.

Crotty, J. M. (2012, September 29). Stuyvestant High School has a Cheating Problem. Here's How To Fix It. InForbes. Retrieved January 11, 2014

Gabriel, T. (2010, July 5). To Stop Cheats, Colleges Learn Their Trickery. InEducation. Retrieved January 11, 2014, from Google..

Gillen, J. (2012, November 22). 5 Reasons Why Students Cheat in School. InExaminer. Retrieved January 11, 2014, from Google..

Hanson, C., Burton, S., Giraud-Carrier, C., West, J., Barnes, M., & Hansen, B. (2013). Tweaking and Tweeting: Exploring Twitter for Nonmedical Use of a Psychostimulant Drug (Adderall) Among College Students. InJournal of Medical Internet Research. Retrieved January 30, 2014

Jenkins, K. (2007, April 17). Adderall: College Students Best or Worst Nightmares. InSerendip Studio. Retrieved January 11, 2014, from Google.

Lying, Cheating, and Stealing. (n.d.). InThe Federal Bureau of Investigation. Retrieved January 11, 2014

Scheff, S. (2010, December 20). Cheating: Shocking stats on academic cheating. InExaminer. Retrieved January 11, 2014

Talbot, M. (2009, April 27). The underground world of "neuroenhancing" drugs. InNew Yorker. Retrieved January 30, 2014