The mouse race before the rat race: Corporate crime and student ethics

Following recent high profile corporate crimes, the issue of business ethics has re-emerged as a concern within society. The questioning of ethical attitudes within business naturally leads to an examination of the attitudes of future business executives, today’s students. This thesis investigates the link between student ethics and corporate crime, focusing particularly upon the opinions of upper level business and criminology students at Simon Fraser University. The findings support previous research showing male students to be more accepting of unethical behaviours than female students. Surprisingly, criminology students were more accepting of unethical behaviours than business students. The research findings suggest the need for an increased focus on ethics education. In addition, more research is needed to determine the impact, if any, that ethics education at a university level may have upon the future conduct of students once they reach the workplace.