ethics - Why is plagiarism so harshly punished?

I realize why plagiarism is morally wrong and punishable. This is not a question about why it is wrong.

This question is about why plagiarism is dealt with so harshly compared to other violations. This might be because I'm uninformed but as per this question and what I've often read plagiarism can easily mean being expelled or suspended.

Here's a short list of offenses that typically get lighter penalties:

• Stealing from another student


• Doing illicit drugs


• At my university (NYU, where discipline is handled through the housing staff), physically hitting someone would result in a combination of warnings/sanctions/being moved with the harshest outcome being kicked out of housing. This is definitely an odd system, but I wouldn't be surprised if other universities had a similar imbalance between the punishments for violence vs. plagiarism.

I'm sure you could add a lot more to this list.

Plagiarism is essentially fraud + stealing, but I've always found it strange that the gut reaction many people have towards it seems to be worse than for getting punched in the face. We definitely don't expel people the first, second, or even third time they get in a fight.

Answer

One key difference between plagiarism and violence is that plagiarism is a specifically academic offense, while violence is already handled by the legal system. If a violent incident is sufficiently serious, it can and should be dealt with in court. This means university rules only need to deal with cases in which the people involved prefer not to take legal action, and they can leave more serious cases to the legal system. In particular, the university rules are typically geared towards the less serious end, since those are the only cases they expect to handle. (If a student or colleague punched me in the face, I would press charges in court, rather than relying on the university to administer justice. By contrast, if two athletes got worked up and started fighting during a high-stakes game, it's possible that neither one would consider the incident worthy of legal action.)

Plagiarism is not always punished severely: a first offense or minor case may be treated leniently. However, the rules allow severe punishments because there are no courts to fall back on. By contrast, universities don't need to have special rules for how to punish a truly dangerous student.