Accountability for sexual crimes and indiscretions

Let us hope that all the revelations about sexual crimes and indiscretions that occurred in decades past will embolden those who have been violated to report attacks quickly. There are several reasons why victims of crimes of all sorts do not press charges against the perpetrators or ever acknowledge that crimes have been committed: fear of reprisal or embarrassment, a sense that no one will believe the stories told, hopelessness where disparity in wealth or status between victim and violator is stark.

Yet we might wonder why allegations of impropriety occasionally appear at times most damaging to politicians or other prominent people. Victims might only be reminded of their abusers when those abusers become prominent in campaigns for election to public offices or are noted in reports of promotions to higher levels of authority. And the take-downs of several prominent people might encourage victims of abuse to come out of the shadows and make their rightful claims to justice.

But political motivation can feature in some stories told in local, regional or national media. Operatives may fabricate some stories to create political gains for some candidates and losses for others. False claims may hurt someone in revenge for unrelated grievances. And too, political campaigns can use victims who have rightful claims for justice against an adversary to damage the reputation of that adversary at the most effective time. Human resourcefulness and creativity have many sides.

With all that, a factor contributing to our troubles is the lack of coherence in the moral realm. The moral life in America in the 21st century is not unified: there is no single code to which all adhere or to which all are held accountable. Pornography, for example, holds a secure place in our culture. And other manifestations of sexual liberation are countless, but here are just three examples:

• While the AVN Award ceremony does not compete with the Oscars in the size of its viewership, it has a format similar to that of the Academy Awards. While it is not quite mainstream, it is well established: Adult Video News has recognized achievements in sexual performance on video since 1984. And it is not going away.
• Since 2002, Ashley Madison has invited people to find sexual satisfactions with others outside of their marriages or committed relationships.
• Since the creation of cellphones, sexting has been a possibility; it remains a common practice for many members of all age groups.

Meanwhile, in other parts of society, there is outrage at infidelity, which has brought down a few politicians and ruined a great many marriages. There is outrage against perpetrators of unwanted sexual advances. There is renewed vigor in movements for the rights of women and for subordinates in churches, businesses, the military forces and government offices. There are calls for reforms in attitudes toward others—calls for recognition of and respect for the rights of others.

In the ‘hydraulic’ model of the psyche, after Freud, repression of sexual or violent impulses stemming from one facet of the personality leads to outbreaks of neuroses or bursts of creativity from other facets. One lesson is that we cannot suppress our instincts without consequences. But we can manage our drives and even transform them. We can let our antisocial tendencies rule us or convert selfishness somehow into altruism. The id need not always reign. Human nature is certainly, to some degree, malleable.

Contradictions within the psyche, as they occur in an individual who compartmentalizes deviations from a moral code in a personality outwardly strictly moralistic, can threaten mental health. Whether such contradictions, when they exist in society at large, ultimately result in disintegration of a civilization or simply persist and cause occasional skirmishes where two antagonistic forces meet each other is a question some authors have asked. The likely answer is that individuals and societies will limp along with all their competing desires—the best and worst of them—and their neuroses and their beliefs that we need to be good.

In any event, since we abhor the abuses committed by the powerful against the vulnerable, and also condemn the people who unjustly accuse others of wrongdoing, we can rejoice when moral wrongdoers and criminals, albeit belatedly, get their comeuppance.