The frequency with which cheating occurs is probably the most studied aspect of academic cheating.

How Do We Know What We Know About Cheating?
• direct observation (unreliable)
• self-report surveys
• surveys asking about the behavior of others rather than oneself
• surveys utilizing the Random Response Technique
• statistical methods
• experimental methods (e.g., self-grading after tests have been secretly photocopied)

CHEATING IN ELEMENTARY & MIDDLE SCHOOL
• 12% percentage of third graders who cheated (James, 1933)
• 30% percentage of students who cheated scoring, their own tests (Feldman & Feldman, 1967)
• 39% say they have cheated at least once; 15% say they have cheated a few or many times (Brandes, 1986)
• 64% say cheating is "a serious problem" at their school (Evans & Craig, 1990)
• >50% percentage of grade 4-6 children near Los Angeles who cheated using bogus key (Houser, 1978)

CHEATING IN HIGH SCHOOL
• 68% Percentage of 1,300 students surveyed by telephone who, when asked to rate severity of cheating, reported the problem as "somewhat serious" or "very serious" (Johnson & Farkas, 1997)
• 97% Percentage of 2,265 California students surveyed who report witnessing others cheat (Brandes, 1986)
• 75% Percentage of students who report cheating at least once by copying answers or using crib sheets (Brandes, 1986)
• 38% Percentage of students who have used pre-arranged signaling during a test (Brandes, 1986)
• 42% Percentage of students who have obtained unfair access to test materials before a test (Brandes, 1986)
• 88% Percentage who agree "students in a class usually know when cheating is going on" (Evans and Craig, 1990)
• 77% Percentage who agree that cheating is a serious problem in their school (Evans and Craig, 1990)
• 45% Percentage of students who cheated scoring their own tests (Feldman & Feldman (1967)
• 10% rise-- Large surveys on perceptions of cheating were repeated in three decades (Schab 1969, 1979, 1989); average 10% rise in perceived cheating during that time
• 76% College students surveyed as to whether they cheated during high school; range from 51 % to 83% (average 76%). Of these, 80% copied or used crib notes (Davis, Grover, Becker & McGregor, 1992)
• 34% Percentage who say "Almost everybody does it" in reference to
• cheating; another 54% say it's "fairly common" and less than 1 % say it "never happens" (Who's Who Among American High School Students, 1993, 1994)

CHEATING IN COLLEGE (adapted from Cizek, 1999)
• 66% Students who report cheating at least once (Sherrill, Salisbury, Horowitz, & Friedman, 1971)
• 32% Students who say they cheat "at every opportunity" (Sherrill, Salisbury, Horowitz, & Friedman, 1971)
• 91 % Students who report cheating at least once (Smith, Ryan & Diggins, 1972)
• 76-43% Say that they've cheated vs. percentage who say they cheat in one or more of their current classes (Baird, 1980)
• 82% Admit to "academic misconduct" (Stern & Havlicek, 1986)
• 54% Students who say they've cheated in the last year (Haines, Diekhoff, LaBeff, & Clark, 1986)
• 9-64% Women at small private liberal arts college who admit to cheating vs. men at regional university who admit to cheating (Davis, Grover, Becker, & McGregor, 1992—the lowest and highest prevalences of cheating in their samples, respectively)
• 74% Say they've witnessed cheating during an examination Jendrek (1992)
• 81-99% Say they've cheated vs. percentage who say others have cheated (Greene and Saxe, 1992)
• 42% Admit to cheating on at least once examination (Kerkvliet, 1994)
• 68% Admit to cheating at least once (Hollinger & Lanza-Kaduce, 1996)
• 90% Admit to cheating at least once (Graham, Monday, O'Brien, & Steffen, 1994)

SUMMARY: from elementary school to college, nearly all students have seen someone cheat, about two-thirds say they've cheated at least once, and about a third cheat regularly.