"You're probably not familiar with sexual mores on college campuses"
I think it's more a case of being too familiar ...
One, not all together uncommon, fantasy for guys is to rape a girl. I'm not saying lot's of guys do it or want to do it, or intend to do it. It's a fantasy, not a desire or intention. (It's a not all together uncommon fantasy for women too, and it doesn't mean they have a secret desire to be raped).
And lot's of rape fantasies involve hookers, students, secretaries, babysitters, etc etc. It's a fantasy about sexual dominance -- about being able to do what one wants with someone in no position to effectively say "No".
Now let's think about your main point:
"If a guy, any guy, can't get a squeeze for free on a college campus he is in trouble. Handsome lacrosse players - they have to beat them off with a stick."
I gave the example of Hugh Grant. He's handsome. And I bet he'd be so busy beating off prospective playmates with a stick he has several people on the payroll to do it for him.
Despite all that, what did Hugh do? He went out to find a cheap UGLY black hooker to get oral sex in his car.
It's not that he couldn't find someone who would do it for free. (Funny scene when he was released on bail -- lots of women were holding up signs saying 'Hugh, I would have done it for free!') And It's not like he couldn't find someone way better looking or someone way better at oral sex or someone as kinky as kinky wants. If that's what he wanted, he could have had it no problem.
But no. He had a very particular desire -- to get oral sex from an UGLY cheap black hooker.
You can't account for that.
I can.
So much the worse for your theory. So much the better for mine.
Now that we know having lots of attractive options doesn't mean a guy, or a group of guys, wouldn't be highly motivated to pursue one that, from an outsider's perspective looks decidedly inferior, let's think about this particular case.
For all either of us know, those boys from Duke might have had an itch analogous to Hugh Grant's. It's not that they couldn't find other girls. It's not that they couldn't find prettier girls or more willing girls or kinkier girls or whatever. But maybe that's not what they wanted most that particular night. Maybe they got turned on by the idea of gang raping a black stripper. Maybe they liked the idea of acting out a sexual fantasy of complete sexual dominance over someone they didn't regard as an equal. In fact, that might have been a major part of the turn on.
Given what we know based on the Hugh Grant example, it's lame to say "But, but, but there were lots of hot white girls at Duke who would have begged them for all the hot kinky sex they wanted. So there's no way they could have had an itch like that"
That might be true. But that might not be what they needed to scratch their itch that night.
Like Hugh Grant, people exploring secret fantasies don't do them in groups, and that's a fact, although my recollection is that Grant was drunk off his ass and probably did it because he thought it was a good idea at the time, and really doesn't have any secret burning desire to get oral sex from a cheap black street hooker.
"Defense attorneys say the lacrosse players requested two white dancers for the party, but the two African-American women showed up."