PAGE 2 — THE DECREE — NOVEMBER 12,1993
‘Good’ students no longer all that good
By DIANA SMITH
(CPS) — If you’ve ever won
dered who commits crime on
campus, look around. It could be
the woman sitting next to you in
class, or the guy who lives down
the hall in the dormitory. Then
again, it could be you.
A series of surveys conducted
by a University of Nebraska
criminal justice professor indicate
that a majority of American stu
dents — more than 50 percent —
candidly admit to stealing money
and property, driving drunk,
cheating on tests, and vandaliz
ing property, to mention a few
crimes.
Even more surprising are re
sults that indicate most students
also consider themselves to be
good citizens and think the “real”
criminals should be given harsher
punishments for their crimes. And
the problem isn’t confined to the
United States. A survey of stu
dents in New Zealand produced
similar results.
“The students view themselves
to be high-minded, law-abiding
citizens, yet their behavior indi
cates otherwise,” said Chris
Eskridge, who teaches at the Uni
versity of Nebraska-Omaha.
In the surveys, 3,417 students
at the University of Nebraska-
Omaha were queried over an
eight-year period (1984-91) about
whether they ever had committed
any of 22 criminal acts. A group
of 542 students at the University
of Canterbury at Christchurch,
New Zealand, answered the same
questionnaire in March and April
1992. Eskridge compared the data
and presented his findings at the
annual meeting of the Western
Society of Criminology in Febru
ary.
Statistics adjusted to compen
sate for differences in age, gen
der, and other factors showed that:
• 58 percent of American stu
dents, compared with 57 percent
of New Zealanders, admitted
stealing less than $10.
• 75 percent of Americans and
50 percent of the New Zealand
students said they had driven
while drunk.
• 81 percent of the Americans
and 52 percent of the New
Zealanders cheated on a test.
• 64 percent of the Americans
said they had stolen items from
motels or hotels while only 42
percent of New Zealanders said
they had done so.
• 53 percent of Americans
smoked marijuana, compared
with 51 percent of New
Zealanders.
• 11 percent of the Americans
said they had stolen from their
roommates, compared with nine
percent of New Zealanders.
• 20 percent of Americans said
they had carried a concealed
we^ns, while 17 percent of the
New Zealanders admitted doing
so.
• 20.7 percent of American
women students said they had
been raped, compared with 17.6
percent of the female New
Zealanders. However, only 6.4
percent of the American men stu
dents said they had forced a
woman to have sex against her
wiU, with 4.7 percent of New
Zealand men admitting to the
crime.
Eskridge said he found the sta
tistics “extremely disturbing,” al
though he suspected that students
of the 1980’s and 1990’s just may
be more upfront about their crimi
nal activity than those of previ
ous generations.
“I don’t know if young people
are lying and cheating any more
than their parents did. It’s just
that we’re more aware of it now,”
he said.
There were some obvious
weaknesses with the surveys, in
cluding the possibility that stu
dents might lie or exaggerate, but
the similarities between the re
sponses by American and New
Zealand students indicated there
was some general validity to the
findings, Eskridge said. Other
studies, including some done by
the FBI, have shown similar re
sults, he noted.
The statistics that Eskridge
said he found the most disturbing
were the ones that indicated some
“cognitive dissonance” on the part
of students who feel that their own
criminal behavior is fine but oth
ers’ is not
Eight-seven percent of the
American students and 81 per
cent of the New Zealand students
said they considered themselves
to be law-abiding citizens, and
74 percent of the Americans and
65 percent of the New Zealanders
advocated giving harsher penal
ties to criminals.
“What seems to keep the ma
jority of students from being le
gally defined as criminal seems
to be the mere fact that they have
not yet been caught and/or con
victed,” the professor said in the
study’s conclusion.
Particularly interesting is the
difference in responses on the last
two questions. Americans were
tougher in their opinions about
criminals even though they ad
mitted participating in more
criminal incidents — an average
of 6.31 out of 22 — compared
with an average of 4.85 crimes
for the New Zealand students.
“It would appear that Ameri
can students might be a bit more
callused, have a more inflated
image of themselves, and/or are
more cq)able of rationalizing be-
Job market deteriorates
(CPS) — The job market de
teriorated significanfly for young
college graduates during flie re
cent recession and has not yet sta
bilized, according to officials at
the U.S. Department of Labor.
Executive and professional
jobs are scarce, with fewer gradu
ates taking professional positions
and more are being forced to ac
cept clerical and support posi
tions, according to a new report.
The study, “Are College Edu
cated Young Persons Finding
Good Jobs?,” was written by Paul
Ryscavage of the U.S. Census
Bureau and reveals that unem
ployment for 16- to 24-year-old
has risen from 1988 to 1991, and
the types of jobs available are
changing in character.
“Joblessness among college-
educated men aged 16 to 24 who
were not in school rose sharply
from nearly five percent in 1988
to almost eight percent in 1991,
and the jobless rate for women
rose from ahnost five percent to
slightly over six percent,” the re
port said.
The number of young persons
with college educations entering
high-paying jobs such as execu
tives, administrative, managerial,
and professional positions, fell
from 53.6 percent in 1989 to 48.4
percent in 1991. At the same time,
the report revealed, the numbers
entering technical, sales, and ad
ministrative support jobs, includ
ing clerical, rose from 33.4 per
cent to 38.2 percent.
havior than are New Zealand stu
dents,” Eskridge wrote.
Although most people con
sider themselves scrupulously
honest, Eskridge said the truth is
that everybody cheats a little now
and then. Managers take home
pens from the office; workers
shave an extra 20 minutes from
their eight-hour days; parents do
their kids’ homework.
“The manager of the conve
nience store embezzles; the kid
steals a Twinkie from the store,”
he said. “People steal in ways that
are available to them.”
Eskridge should know. Before
becoming a college professor, he
worked in the white-collar crime
division of an attorney general’s
office, so the results of the sur
veys weren’t entirely surprising.
“It’s disheartening, and it’s
troublesome... But is there any
difference between the robba bar
ons of the 1880’s and the robber
barons of the 1980’s? They get
away with it; kids see that,” he
said. “Isn’t that part of the Ameri
can way? Get away with it... The
winners write the rules, not the
losers.
“I think the whole country is
moving in that direction. We’re a
nation of lying, cheating thieves,”
Eskridge said, noting that the rob
ber barons of the 1700s and 1800s
who helped establish the nation
arc considered heroes today, al
though many of them basically
lied, cheated, and stole their way
to success.
Another recent study seems to
bear out Eskridge’s data on cheat
ing among college students.
Donald McCabe of Rutgers
University in New Jersey sur
veyed more lhan 6,000 students
at 31 American universities and
found that 67 percent admitted to
having cheated at least once dur
ing their academic careers, ac
cording to a SepL 10 story in the
North Carolina State Technician.
TOP TEN
MO$T CLUELESS
PEOPLE ON EARTH
10. Rainforest chainsaw
9.
8.
7.
6.
5.
4.
3.
2.
1.
operator.
Millionaires in prison.
Drivers with turn signal
perpetually on.
Las Vegas lounge acts.
Unregistered voters.
Frozen dinner enthusiasts.
Javelin catcher.
Someone in express
checkout line with eleven
items.
Chain-smoking gas station
attendant.
Drug users.
PARTNERSHIP FOR A
DRUG-FREE AMERICA