Abstract
Duke University was roiled in the spring of 2006 with allegations that members of the university’s lacrosse team had raped a stripper hired to perform at a team party. The charges turned out to be false, and early in the process, a number of people in key positions at Duke and in the City of Durham, North Carolina, knew the charges were not true, yet the process of indictments and charges went on. This paper critically examines the conduct of the Duke administration during the crisis which ended when North Carolina Attorney General Roy Cooper declared he was dropping charges and the young men charged were innocent. We contend that Duke’s administration not only failed in its response, but actually made the crisis worse because of failure to police its own employees whose legally questionable behavior helped spur the false charges. We also contend that these errors were not the result of simple bumbling, although there was some of that; indeed, the university was trying to protect the “Duke Brand,” but a “politically correct” brand that Duke has been building for more than a decade.
Recommended Citation
Anderson, William L. and Shah, Amit
(2013)
"Crisis and Criticism: Duke University and the Failures of the Lacrosse Case,"
Journal of Business, Industry, and Economics: Vol. 18, Article 3.
Available at:
https://roar.una.edu/jobie/vol18/iss1/3