In the last decade, around 300 dedicated clubs have opened in England and Wales where the live display of nudity is regularly offered. Such venues have been accused of offering exploitative and degrading forms of entertainment which compromise the safety not just of female performers, but all women who live and work around such venues. However, there is no existing academic research documenting this. This research accordingly aims to collect such evidence, performing a grounded analysis of the impacts of such venues on surrounding businesses and residents. This will be achieved through an examination of the impacts of venues in a small town, a large town, a small city and a regional capital, chosen to represent the diversity of club styles and settings. The research will combine analysis of objections to club licensing, guided walks in the vicinity of clubs and an extensive survey of local residents. This project is grounded in social science literatures on the sexualisation of society, fear of crime and the regulation of the night-time economy. The findings will be of interest to stakeholders in licensing, town centre management and community safety, as well as audiences in sociology, criminology and geography.
Alongside a review of secondary documentation and legal cases, the research collected primary data to explore attitudes towards, and perceptions of, lap dance clubs in British cities. This relied upon a multi-method strategy combining qualitative and quantitative methods. Qualitative: 9 guided walks in summer 2012 involving mixed gender adult groups through English towns and cities where lap dance clubs are present: all were taped and transcribed. The walks were designed to pass a range of different venues and settings, including lap dance clubs. Quantitative: 941 online survey responses received to an online survey of residents living in these cities: survey hosted by Bristol Online Surveys and publicised through local media, flyers and e-communications. Data entered to SPSS and analysed using non-parametric techniques.
