Blog #8- Research Question in Conversation

I feel that one of the most prevalent and most interesting debates within the spectrum of college sports is the corruption that exists on many levels of college sports. It is true with college sports, and many other situations such as politics, that not all people who are involved are corrupt however in the eyes of the public a "few sour apples can spoil the bunch". With the direction of corruption that exists in college sports, I want to bring it down another level to research how people's perceptions of the college sports world effects the ways that athletes act. It has been researched and documented many times that athletes are more likely to commit academically dishonest acts than non athletes. These findings can be based on many different reasons as to why a student athlete would cheat; however I want to focus specifically on the Neutralization Theory and how it seems that student athletes unconsciously apply this method of rationalization to committing acts of academic dishonesty. I know that not all athletes cheat and not all college sports authorities are corrupt; however it is important to research why close to a majority of these people are involved in less then honest dealings. I will be using a study conducted by Storch et al. regarding the application of the Neutralization Theory, proposed by Gresham Sykes and David Matza to originally understand the reasons behind criminal's actions, to academic dishonesty. This study will provide the frame for my paper. However, I will also be using information from books such as, Unpaid Professionals by Andrew Zimbalist and Confessions of a Spoil Sport by William Dowling, to investigate the findings that other researchers/ journalists have found in regards to corruption in college sports. I have recently found a new article entitled "Learning Theories of Crime" by Robert Hale which focuses on the social theories ( specifically the Social Learning Theory and the Neutralization Theory) and I think that this resource (and the resources used as references for the writing) will be very useful in providing background for the theories behind social behavior and will make it easier to see how it can be applied to college sports and the actions of college athletes.