By the Numbers: Teen Ethics

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Credit: XPLANE

Thirty-eight percent of teens believe it is sometimes necessary to cheat, plagiarize, lie, or even behave violently in order to succeed, according to a survey by Junior Achievement [2] and Deloitte.

Interestingly, the majority (71 percent) of the 725 teens surveyed say they feel fully prepared to make ethical decisions when they enter the workforce.

In a particularly alarming finding, given recent cases of school violence, nearly one-quarter of all teens surveyed think violence toward another is acceptable on some level. Of those 23 percent who think so, the justifications for violence include 27 percent for settling an argument and 20 percent for revenge.

Survey co-organizer Junior Achievement has begun a new program called Excellence Through Ethics that provides hands-on classroom activities and real-life applications designed to foster ethical decision making as students prepare to enter the workforce.