Duke Lacrosse Scandal Sheds New Light on the Stripper Industry: A Campus Trend?

April 24, 2006 — -- A Duke University student and lacrosse team captain calls Allure Escort Service to order two strippers. He says it's for a bachelor party, but the dancers arrive to a gathering of college boys, many drinking and some underage.

Is this just your average Monday night at college?

ABC News spoke with students and recent college graduates from around the country. All of them wanted to speak anonymously given the delicate nature of the topic, and all said the same thing: They had seen strippers at parties on or near campus, often at fraternity and athletic team parties celebrating birthdays or new pledges.

ABC News also heard from strippers in the Durham, N.C., area, some of whom did "outcalls" -- visits to in-house parties like the one held at the lacrosse house on March 13, the scene of an alleged rape that has generated national headlines.

Since last Monday's indictment of two Duke student lacrosse players, a cloud has hung over the storied halls and tulip gardens of the university's campus. More than a mile away at the Teaser's Palace strip club at the edge of downtown, business booms.

On Friday night, one patron said he had never seen the place more crowded. A cocktail waitress told ABC News the club hadn't seen any downtime since the start of the investigation. Elsewhere, a Charlotte strip club ran a sign that said, "Lacrosse Players Welcome."

There are different levels of "service" that most dancers -- what they prefer to be called -- provide. Those services range from $20 "no touching" lap dances at clubs -- where burly bouncers keep everybody in line -- to "outcalls," where women visit private homes, sometimes alone -- and where the definition of service gets murky.

Summer, a 30-year-old exotic dancer who studies surgical technology by day and strips at a Durham club at night, has had a mixed experience as a stripper.

"I wouldn't wish this life on anyone," she said to ABC News. "But it's like a drug -- you get addicted to it."