On the Role of Drug Use in Strip Clubs

• In Event: 477 - Section on Crime, Law, and Deviance Roundtable Session
  In Refereed Roundtable: Table 07. Inequality and Crime 1

Abstract

There has been ample literature on strip clubs regarding interaction between setting members, stigma management, power and social control, and various career stages of strippers This article adds to the literature by focusing on the perspective of strippers and the variety of motivations for their use of drugs and alcohol. Using interviews and fieldwork, I explore drug and alcohol use, identity and marginalization, as well as instrumental and recreational forms of drug use in strip clubs. I conclude by discussing how sex workers adopt hegemonic narratives of drug use to frame and to normalize their conduct.

Author

• Melissa Francesca Lavin, State University of New York-Oneonta