Scientific misconduct, in recent years, has drawn intense press coverage and substantial policy attention. Various explanations have been advanced to account for its occurrence, ranging from the individual deviance of scientists to the collective transformation of contemporary science, and though each explanation illuminates a facet of the phenomenon, all seem incomplete in some crucial respect and suffer from a dearth of empirical evidence. In this article I briefly review definitions of misconduct and available evidence about its prevalence and critically examine three sorts of explanations: individual psychopathology, anomie, and alienation. Drawing on recent theories of social control, I then suggest a perspective that focuses on the social response to misconduct, not the causes of misconduct itself. I close by outlining some of the implications of this perspective for research and policy.