Academic Crime: A Case Study of Hiring Thesis and Academic Work Writing Services

Abstract

This study aims to study the process of hiring thesis writers by interviewing both employers and contractors and examining related documents to analyze the crime related to thesis writing services. Also, this study aims to examine its procedures to analyze and identify problems at individual, institutional, and societal levels. From the study, it was found that 1) there were various forms of thesis outsourcing, namely telephones, emails, and social media, through an intermediary and then contacting a contractor. Wages depended on the difficulty of the job. The reasons given by employers were that they lacked time to search for information or to visit the area, but needed to graduate. To help friends or acquaintances with high remuneration in return was a reason given by contractors. It was also found that 2) when the data were analyzed at individual, institutional and societal levels, they were all affected in the same way. At the individual level, it was found that employers and the contractors had a choice whether to commit an offense, but they chose to do so in order to achieve the goal. The institutional level then was affected as such offense caused the institution to have personnel that did not meet the requirements, which finally became social problems. Moreover, 3) when the data were analyzed for crime, it was found that in criminology, outsourcing the writing of a thesis was considered a crime in the sense of an offense. Employers and contractors chose to commit an offense even though they had a choice because they wanted to achieve their set goals which were to graduate or to be promoted regardless of the method. As for ethics, it was divided into 2 parts: 1) If that thing made people happy, it was not considered wrong, and 2) according to morality, outsourcing the writing of a thesis was an offense and should not be done. Therefore, it was necessary to take into account the context of each society as to how ethical concepts were.