It is the responsibility of individual faculty members and administrators to make sure that penalties are consistently enforced.

In answering their rhetorical question about why students cheat, Lathrop and Foss (2000) answer that “(1) it’s easy, especially with new technologies, (2) fewer than 10% are caught, and (3) most of those who are caught get off without serious penalty.”

Unless students know that there is reasonable certainty that serious sanctions will be imposed if they are caught cheating, there is no disincentive to cheat.

References and Resources

Lathrop, Ann and Kathleen Foss. Student Cheating and Plagiarism in the Internet Era Englewood, CO: Libraries Unlimited, 2000.