
There Are “Weinsteins” Lurking in Every Profession – Including Tech - CodeLikeAGirl
https://code.likeagirl.io/there-are-weinsteins-lurking-in-every-profession-including-tech-d833d7d92758
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jaggederest
It seems clear from general societal trends and the specific informative
example of the clergy abuse scandal that the durable rate of offending in the
general population is around 5%, and that the distribution follows a long
tail, i.e. most violence and also most sexual violence is perpetrated by only
a tiny subset, with the vast majority of offenders being only incidental.

So, I would expect that in any population examined, you'd see about <1% or so
of a really significant core of unrepentant, repeat offenders committing a
large majority of the reprehensible acts, and I would expect to see this
durably despite any level of intervention or harm mitigation.

Where intervention really matters is in the ~4% who transgress on an
incidental basis, and small changes in culture and education can make a large
difference there.

We just need to set clear standards that establish what is or is not
acceptable, educate people about how to avoid being an abuser, and have
significant consequences for that abuse. Part of that is pretty simple
openness, discussion, and recognition of the problem; and part of it requires
creating systems that can protect and evaluate reports of abuse without
endangering the victim, which is a more difficult task.

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stale2002
Ehh, I think it is the opposite. The un-repenting abusers who engage in
repeated abuse, are only getting away because the people around them are
letting it happen.

An abusers might be able to get away with something unnoticed a couple times,
but sooner or later word gets around, and it becomes an open secret that this
person is an abuser.

And if everyone around them knows that this person is an abusers then they
need to start doing something about it, and everyone needs to stop enabling
the serial abuser.

Obviously education doesn't work on the abuser, but it works on everyone
around them, so that they know what to look for, and can stop them before
things get out of hand.

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Torgo
With Weinstein, he was a successful serial abuser because he had both carrot
and stick. His power meant he had leverage on everyone around him who might
speak out, and his money and connections meant that he could buy silence if
that didn't work.

I believe that this happens on a smaller scale with other serial abusers, they
seek out situations where they have leverage so it's harder for someone to
speak out.

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specialp
I know it is very difficult for victims of such aggravated harassment to name
"the guy", but it has to be done. If this man had gone up and punched her in
the face, he would have been lead out in cuffs and everyone would know who he
is. Why is it any different with people that grope someone? Yes with things
that are more on the fringe of what some people would consider harassment,
perhaps the person should be informed that this makes someone uncomfortable
and not put on blast, but something as blatant as groping someone should be
treated no different than physical assault.

When more people come forward with this just as they would if they were
assaulted, the "Weinsteins" will be not able to operate.

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jaggederest
It's really not that simple. Part of the violence that abusers use to abuse is
the fact that they are inherently protected by the way that reporting affects
victims.

We need to change the structures around reporting abuse before we can expect
more victims to report abuse. It's really that simple - when you can't trust
HR, your coworkers, the public at large or the police not to provide cover or
justification for abuse, it's very difficult to report.

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dietcokeee
Who is "the guy"?

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gk1
Why does that matter?

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habeebtc
What, really?

Weinstein had anecdotes floating around by word of mouth for decades. Maybe if
some of those had been collected anonymously in a public forum, action would
have been taken sooner.

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PeachPlum
Not just w.o.m. anecdotes, multiple police investigations that went nowhere

[http://www.google.com/search?q=harvey+weinstein+abuse&dcr=0&...](http://www.google.com/search?q=harvey+weinstein+abuse&dcr=0&biw=600&bih=843&source=lnt&tbs=cdr%3A1%2Ccd_min%3A1%2F1%2F1990%2Ccd_max%3A1%2F1%2F2017&tbm=)

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karensd
Amazing how many times this post has gotten flagged.
#methinksthebrosprotesttoomuch

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sctb
We've turned off the flags, but we all need to take extra care to comment
civilly and substantively so that we have a chance to discuss the actual
issue. Users often flag stories like this because they're anticipating
flamewars and not at all because they disagree with the content of the
article.

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jakebasile
I think it's a bit uncool to "turn off the flags" here. I flagged this
specifically because I am tired of the incessant flamewar that will surely
happen in here.

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sctb
When moderators do this we compensate by giving the thread specific attention
to attempt to prevent such flamewars as best we can.

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subway
It amazes me that articles like this get flagged so quickly. At risk of going
too meta, it makes me curious how flagging/vouching gets weighted.

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CodeLikeAGirl
So far it has been flagged and unflagged 3 times! We are back to flagged.

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graycat
That's a very old story with a good, old solution: The girl/woman carries a
hat pin, quite sharp, about 6 inches long, has ready access to it, and is
willing and able to use it.

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habeebtc
Thinking about how a friend of mine was assaulted at work by her boss, who was
a very powerful person at her place of work, I wonder how it would have played
out if she had stabbed him instead of punching him in the face. I don't think
he would have been deterred by a hat pin, no more than he was deterred by the
threat of ruining his career by assaulting his employee. (It is clear this was
not his first rodeo)

In the stabbing scenario, he probably would have filed charges, and the police
would have taken his side when he claimed she was an unhinged employee.

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graycat
If he was close enough for her to stab him deeply with a six inch hat pin,
then that is evidence that he was too close, and the obvious reason was that
he was attacking her.

Typically a six inch hat pin stab will be more effective than a woman's punch
in the face.

According to Mom, the hat pin solution is what was common and effective. I'm
sure they thought of alternatives.

The attacker would be reluctant to take a hat pin stabbing to the police
because the woman might file charges of the attack.

Of course, now a woman can carry a voice recorder of some kind where she
screams "No. Stop". Then if the police get involved, she wins. If she gets
fired, then with the recording she has a wrongful termination suit.

