Don’t go overboard on punishment for sexual harassment

Victims of sexual harassment need to be heard, but it seems that the pendulum has swung too fart from our past extreme of protecting the accused at the expense of the alleged victim. Now we seem to be totally focused on the needs of the victim. We’ve gone from innocent until proven guilty to guilty until proven innocent.

As someone who had no trouble adding my “Me, Too,” I recognize the lifelong damage that results from hideous, destructive, intentional and on-going abuse. But as someone who has taken multiple courses on behavioral psychology, I also understand that punishment without the ability to recover breeds fear and rage. It’s the rage I’m worried about.

When we ignore a lifetime of positive contributions and focus on the single act, be it ill-advised or even heinous, we create a climate of fear in which those least likely to offend are paralyzed by the possibility that something they say or do will be misconstrued and destroy them.

Most workplaces used to respond to sexual inappropriateness — be it thoughtless comments or rape — by showing a video defining and decrying sexual harassment, and naming an administrator to take and investigate reports from the offended or the abused. Now it seems as though the uninvestigated report is cause for immediate firing.

While I believe there is a place for punishment and isolation after heinous acts have been verified, I also believe that the goal in most cases should be supervised treatment, restitution and rehabilitation. That’s the best way to keep us all safe.

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