Conviction’s a win for workplace safety
Victims’ advocates nationwide are jubilant about the rape conviction of Harvey Weinstein — the Hollywood mogul now facing the prospect of years in prison for two of the casting couch sexual assaults that exploded into the #MeToo movement.
And they should be. This case could have gone either way. Give Manhattan District Attorney Cy Vance credit for filing charges in a case that was far from a slam dunk, though he did so reluctantly — after a lot of pressure from advocates like me who criticized him publicly for dragging his feet after accepting big campaign donations from one of Weinstein’s law firms. The case was tough, but not because the victims weren’t credible. They were very credible. It’s that we have an ugly habit of not prosecuting men who use their power and influence, rather than weapons and drugs, to commit rape.
Both primary victims said they had sex with Weinstein after the rapes, which has nothing to do with whether they were raped, but some jurors unfairly place blame on victims based on how they behaved before and after the fact, and that blame translates into reasonable doubt.
Most jurors don’t understand that rapists go out of their way to be friendly with their victims after the crime because they want to deter them from reporting. Rapists work very hard to make victims doubt their own feelings about what happened, so it’s not unusual for a victim to have consensual sexual contact with her rapist after the assault simply because she desperately wants to believe she wasn’t raped.
Weinstein was found not guilty on the most serious rape charge and two predatory offender charges, which could have landed him in jail for the rest of his life.
The likely reason Weinstein was not convicted of all the charges is the jury felt sympathy and wanted to compromise. Weinstein used a walker in court that made him look frail. Then there were the unflattering photographs of his genitalia that may have led the jury to believe Weinstein was partly motivated by shame and self-hatred. Nothing Weinstein suffered in his life excuses what he reportedly did to more than 100 women, but juries notoriously give discounts to defendants who seem pathetic.
But he still faces 25 years, and a compromise verdict is still a major victory because for too long in this country, sexual misconduct by a man who wields his power over women has been treated as a problem to be handled by human resources, or a civil lawsuit, not criminal prosecution.
The Weinstein verdict is a shot across the bow to workplace offenders: if you offer a woman a job in exchange for sexual favors, you can land in a jail cell. The verdict is also a warning to prosecutors: If you don’t take this crime seriously, you might be voted out of office.
Most of all, the verdict is a powerful message to victims everywhere who have ever wondered whether being assaulted or propositioned in the workplace was a crime. The answer is yes. It is a civil rights issue that should be addressed internally. But it is also an offense against the public and a serious crime and a violation of the right to work in an environment free from discrimination and abuse. You can call the police. Perpetrators want women not to think about the abuse they endure in the workplace as the public’s business, but it is. And we have the Harvey Weinstein case to thank for making this point very, very clear.