This critical essay represents critical evaluation of the research on peer effects in academic cheating made by Scott E. Carrell, Frederick V. Malmstrom and James E. West.
The main theme of the article is that one could be influenced and affected by the principles of wrong or bad peers, that could pass on the next generations. It has been discussed in the number of researches about peers’ influence on many factors such as crime rates, juvenile correctional facilities (Bayer, Pintoff, and Pozen, 2005) and academic achievements (Graham, 2006; Hanushek, et al., 2003; Hoxby and Weingarth, 2006; Lefgren, 2004). Despite this fact, some argue that there is no strong evidence of these effects (Sacerdote, 2001; Zimmerman, 2003; Stinebrickner, 2006; Hoxby and Weingarth, 2006).
The main question of the research is whether peer influence exists in higher education. It focuses mainly on the evidence of the above-mentioned effects in academic achievements in colleges. For instance, influence of drinking roommates (Kremer and Levy, 2003) or academic cheating (Stanard and Bowers, 1870). Major factor that is contributing is the fact of cheating by the peers makes it available for potential cheater (McCabe and Trevino, 1993). The degree of cheating is enormous and it is confirmed by McCabe (2005) – about 70% of recent graduates participated in academic cheating. The social importance of this problem is that employers will face the problem of differentiating highly valuable employees from