[armchairhacker]

Handle it in court. Sexual harassment is a crime, and we already have a legal system to deal with it.

Arbitration / counseling / punishment within the company is ok as long as its voluntary (by the victim). If whatever occurred isn't actually a crime, then you handle it with arbitration which is not voluntary (because the company doesn't technically need to do anything).

If the company wants to fire the accused even if they're potentiality innocent it's ultimately up to them. In an ideal world, the accused wouldn't be forced out until they're convicted (in a court of law or internal tribunal). But in practice, the accusation itself could create drama and negative reputation, so even if the accused is 100% innocent it may be best for them to need to leave anyways.

[gbronner]

The issue is that the standards of proof is much higher in criminal cases. There's no way to defend against fraudulent or frivolous accusations

[mrguyorama]

These two sentences directly contradict each other? If an accusation is fraudulent or frivolous it won't meet the high standard of proof for criminal cases.

Hell, many sexual assault, harassment, and rape cases don't meet the standards of criminal proof because there's often not good physical evidence and "they did it" "no I didn't" isn't proof either.

[mlindner]

Sexual harassment, generally, is not a crime. Before we start going off the deep end here. In the US in general sexual harassment is a civil matter, not a criminal one.