Convenience Theory

A last condition that must be met to make cheating more convenient for a student is a facilitating social context. Miethe and Meier (Cite) pointed out that for crime to occur, there must be a facilitating location, an interpersonal relationship between the victim and the offender, and a behavioral setting that establishes the activities of the victim at the time of the offense (see Figure 1). A large classroom with too many students may make cheating more convenient. When professors do not have a strong interpersonal relationship with their students, the students may feel it is more convenient to cheat since they do not have a close connection with the professors. In the case of academic cheating, the behavioral setting is predetermined. The professor and the students are necessarily together in a classroom.

Colleges and their faculty can contribute to the cheating behavior of students by presenting themselves as attractive victims, by not taking the necessary precautions to protect exam information or by creating an atmosphere of ambivalence toward cheating. If colleges or professors do not provide an adequate number of proctors for exams, they may contribute to cheating. To decrease cheating, colleges must decrease the motivation to cheat, increase the social restraints on cheating, and decrease the physical opportunities for cheating.