Ask HN: What % of harassment claims are legitimate? This is reasonable, right?

An equally important question to ask is, if you are accused of such harassment, what do you do? In the U.S. we have the concept of "innocent until proven guilty", but due to the sensitive nature of the alleged crime, the accused may be treated by their peers and the media as guilty, even before proceedings begin. Everyone's claims should be taken entirely seriously, but with the ability to inflict ever-lasting damage on the accused' reputation, I have questioned if people will start (or have been) abusing this power... and with our attention-driven media, the media will not hesitate one moment to post the headline.

I've contemplated the idea that with this crime, accusers and the accused should enter a private court, so the media wouldn't know the situation until the verdict is delivered. If either party leaks that they are in this process, the case will be forfeited. Of course, there are serious problems here that if there is no publicity, society cannot check-and-balance the process if abuse occurs. At a high level though, what this idea should accomplish is to allow the process to do its thing, and to prevent knee-jerk reactions to the charge from people who have no stake in the matter.

Justice shouldn't be based on statistics. If a sexual harrasment claim is made,why not treat it like any other accusation of wrongdoing?

If the accused admits(like many of the popularized cases recently),he should be charged in court,why would someone admitting to rape not be prosecuted?

If the accused does not admit guilt then he(or she) should be viewed as innocent until proven otherwise. Is it not better for many guilty suspects to escape punishment than for one innocent person to pay for a crime that didn't happen?

We can't know since none of the cases appear to be going to court, arbitration, etc.

It's clear that a large % are resulting in immediate "guilty" punishments though, with people forced to resign, being written-out of movies, etc, etc.

The current environment is obviously open to abuse and the danger is there will be a backlash.

It's quite different being a 18 year old male pressuring 18 year old girls into sex and being a senior manager pressuring a new hire into sex.

It is a problem when the lady doesn't feel that she has the right to say no. A manager at a billion dollar company can be more intimidating than an 18 year old with a knife.

I want this conversation to keep going.

I only have anecdotal data, from personal experience. I have encountered _one_ instance of false accusation of sexual harassment in which the accuser was out to take down the accused. High-school aged students. If the accused had not had an audio recording that contradicted the accuser's repeated story, the accused may well have been expelled from school.

But..

I have honestly lost count of the number of incidents in which the accuser was willing to suffer the consequences of making such an accusation, while also dealing with the trauma of harassment and assault. About fifteen of those.

Age 16-24 is hard for everyone. Learning to negotiate boundaries, I have seen the resilience of the kids these days, the work they put into thier social matrix, and the positive effect of open discussion regarding appropriate sexual behavior.

A consistent pattern of bad behavior by people who have some power over their victims -- even after direct confrontation, after the message that such behavior is Not OK -- well, that is in fact pathological.

I think the majority of these claims of inappropriate behavior are legitimate... It was quite a while before I figured out how to not be "obnoxious" when talking to women I thought I might have a chance with.

One night I had to have a pair of "birds and bees" talks with a early-20's female passenger.

That diary was called "the difference between boys & girls" [0] (tl/dr: she previously didn't appreciate how much power she had in her selection of potential suitors). Because the lesson was for a woman, I didn't have to cover the male perspective that much... But I'd ask her to consider the perspective of the guys who can't seem to ever get laid: the stereotypical "40-year-old virgin". What happens when those guys get a little bit of power?

[0] http://www.taxiwars.org/2016/02/the-difference-between-boys-...

I'm thinking about a followup, tentatively titled "The predicaments of girls & boys". This will be about a woman who got kicked to the curb by her wealthy boyfriend, the woman who had a "loser" boyfriend whom she was probably overly-invested in, and the women who got something a little different than they expected when they got picked up by some wealthy patrons at the club. Two of these stories were told to me (hear-say), but I think they're credible.

I think the wording the media uses is very misleading.

Many of the recently reported cases are really an abuse of power. The victim is often threatened with a less appealing outcome if she were to resist the advances made upon her. It is worth noting that people rise to positions of power due to their talent for being over-bearing and appearing reasonable when in fact they are being self-important, entitled jerks. A swift kick where it hurts the most would be the best response, but then again that would result in immediate expulsion.

If the annoying 18 yo male is handsome and has a good job, then the pressure is welcome. But if he is some pimple faced, nerd then it is considered to be harassment. You only have to see how sports jocks have the babes fawning over them.

Percentages are impossible to come by. But to confirm your suspicions, I know of at least one serial harassment claimant who has made out quite well from her accusations. But the media didn't give it as much airtime as it deserved. Probably so as to not tip of the M.O. for others.