Student Profile: Noah Norton

I am a first-year MA student in Criminology at Simon Fraser University studying group crime, academic dishonesty, and perceptual deterrence. Prior to being accepted into the SFU MA cohort in 2022, I completed my undergraduate degree in Criminology at SFU as well. I graduated with a BA(Honours) First Class with Distinction in August of 2022 and started the MA program just a month later in September.

HOW YOU BECAME INTERESTED IN CRIMINOLOGY?

I became interested in criminology not by passion but by luck. When I was applying to SFU for my undergraduate degree, I didn’t know what I wanted to do, I just wanted to get into a good school. My brother was already in the SFU Criminology program at the time and told me that the School of Criminology takes a large number of students, so I should apply there. I applied to the Criminology program and got accepted, and thankfully, I became interested in trying to unpack the various reasons why people engage in crime through my coursework.

WHAT IS YOUR RESEARCH ABOUT?

My research is primarily focused on group crime, but I’m also interested in academic dishonesty. My first real research project combined these two interests. My honours thesis research, completed alongside my supervisor, Dr. Zachary Rowan, quantitatively assesses the impact of student group chat size on the diffusion of responsibility hypothesis (the idea that individuals will feel less responsible for deviant behaviour in larger groups, and as a result will be more willing to engage in deviant behaviour). Although we did not find support for the diffusion of responsibility hypothesis in post-secondary student group chats as it is originally hypothesized, we found that the type of academic dishonesty a student engages in is significantly related to their perceptions of responsibility. I’ve also had the pleasure of working on qualitative projects, such as my current work alongside Dr. Sheri Fabian and Jasmin Naidu, looking at the impacts of a restorative justice approach to dealing with instances of academic dishonesty during the COVID-19 pandemic. This project is still underway, but it has been fascinating to be able to understand the motivations behind academic dishonesty at such a tumultuous time. My current MA research pertains specifically to group crime. I am interested in examining whether an individual’s perceptions of risk and reward differ across solo and group offending, and whether they are associated with changes in their likelihood to offend across several crime types.

WHAT ARE YOU PARTICULARLY ENJOYING ABOUT YOUR STUDIES AND RESEARCH AT SFU’S SCHOOL OF CRIMINOLOGY?

The best part about my studies and research at SFU’s School of Criminology is the freedom. I love being able to pursue and study whatever topic I’d like within the courses, and of course, being able to delve deep into interesting subject matter for my thesis. Everyone in the MA program has different passions, so when it comes time to present or talk about our research, there’s a beautiful mosaic of different criminological interests. It’s awesome to watch everyone talk about and study what they love.

READ NOAH NORTON’S WORK:

The Group Nature of Academic Dishonesty & Diffusion of Responsibility in Online Student Chat Groups

Diffusion of Responsibility in Instances of Group Academic Dishonesty

CONTACT INFORMATION:

E-mail: noah_norton@sfu.ca

Twitter: @NoahBNorton

LinkedIn: Noah Norton

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