Abstract
Contract cheating refers to students paying a third party to complete university assessments for them. Although opportunities for commercial contract cheating are widely available in the form of essay mills, only about 3% of students engage in this behaviour. This study examined the reasons why most students do not engage in contract cheating. Students (n = 1204) completed a survey on why they do not engage in contract cheating as well as measures of several individual differences, including self-control, grit and the Dark Triad traits. Morality and motivation for learning received the greatest endorsement for why students do not engage in contract cheating. Controlling for gender, individual differences predicted students’ reasons for not contract cheating. This study supports the use of criminological theories relating to rational choice, self-control and opportunity to explain why students do not engage in contract cheating. Practically, this study may inform academic policies and assessment design that may reduce contract cheating.
Highlights
Clarke and Lancaster (2006) first defined contract cheating as when a student pays a ghostwriter to complete an assessment for them, with the inclusion of a financial exchange
This finding provides support for the use of the General Theory of Crime and routine activity theory and the rational choice perspective as theoretical explanations for why students do not engage in contract cheating
The results of this study support the use of the General Theory of Crime and opportunity-based criminological theories to explain why the majority of students do not engage in contract cheating
Summary
Clarke and Lancaster (2006) first defined contract cheating as when a student pays a ghostwriter to complete an assessment for them, with the inclusion of a financial exchange. This definition distinguishes contract cheating as an independent form of academic misconduct, despite its similarities with ghostwriting per se. This paper uses a range of theoretical perspectives that attempt to explain rule-breaking behaviour in other contexts to examine why the majority of students do not engage in contract cheating: a question that remains unanswered by research to date
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