the role of morality

I've begun to look at plagiarism more and more like the sociologists do. I don't really know sociology that well, though I'm married to a sociologist, and read quite a bit of it due to teaching about such things as crime. So I'm venturing a guess here.

It's not that sociologists aren't interested in morality, but they can't really measure it, so they stick to the things they can measure. In figuring out why people commit any crime, they have to consider the circumstances: what kind of opportunity that person has; what the perceived price of getting caught is; what the perceived likelihood of getting caught is, what the price of not committing the crime is, etc.

Now our students, of course, often have very little awareness that plagiarism is a crime. We do tell them, of course, at the beginning of the term. We emphasize it, even; I stomp around, and try to convey how it's a moral crime here, regardless of what they've been taught in their home countries. Nevertheless, their listening is bad. Their memory is short too: they may not believe me. After all, it happens all the time in their countries, regardless of what their teacher might say. So, they plagiarize.

Let's assume they have some awareness of the seriousness of the crime. They still are weighing the costs and benefits; they know what might happen. They somehow believe everything will be ok. Somehow, in the total balance, it's easier to copy than not to.

So what about morality itself? I'll be the first to say, just because you go to church, doesn't mean you have it. It does mean, though, that if you get caught stealing you'll be that much more humiliated, in front of a community that may matter to you. So in that sense, I think a sociologist would agree- going to church makes it less likely that you'll steal.

What if, all your life, something was ok, then, you move to a new country, and some big fat hairy dude tells you it's not ok? Wouldn't you rather believe your father? Of course. So, deep in your heart, it's hard to get used to a new morality. Morality is not playing much of a role here.

However, if it's plain and clear to you that you'll get a 0 if you get caught, that matters. It's part of the calculation. Let's assume that everyone knows what they're doing. Let's assume, perhaps incorrectly, that they heard me on the first two or three days, saying it over and over: it's not a crime to steal, it's just a crime to put your name on the paper.

Finally, I want to say a word about these weblogs. These posts have a way of staying around forever. I'm pretty bold; I've said some stuff you might not agree with. I'd carve it in stone, but it's a new day; I don't have to. In the old days, if you put something on paper, people tended to read it, and it was very important. That's because they didn't have that much to do, after a long day of hard farming, and they were grateful to read something, anything, to give their minds something to chew on. Today, we're bombarded by information. The smartest of us learn to skim and scan. The vast majority of us will never get this far down on anything anyone has written.

Which is just as well.