Abstract
The purpose of this research was to gauge the knowledge and beliefs about the topic of deception among criminal justice lower division students and criminal justice upper division students enrolled at California State University, Sacramento during the Spring 2013 semester. Using a purposive sampling procedure of two criminal justice courses, 367 college students completed a self-administered survey. Specific analyses were conducted including creating an index, reviewing an independent samples t-test, and calculating a Chi Square test of significance in order to determine if upper division criminal justice students are more knowledgeable about deception than lower division criminal justice students and if there are differences in the beliefs about deception between the two groups. Although the results were mixed, the analysis found that both criminal justice students and non-criminal justice intended majors have some knowledge of deception as well as have differing beliefs about the topic. Further research might include a larger population of criminal justice students by surveying more courses that are offered and over a longer period of time, as well as use different or more methods to test the hypothesis and analyze the data collected.