'Zero Tolerance' policies haven't stopped harassment, but they have done a great job of killing social trust.
March 19, 2026
Original Paper
The Paradox of Zero Tolerance: When the Tool Misses the Target
SSRN · 6301661
The Takeaway
The paper argues that by treating every minor social friction as a potential crime, these policies have missed the target of actual abuse. Scientific data indicates that while the bureaucracy of reporting has increased, the underlying frequency of harassment remains unchanged, while general social dialogue has become strained.
From the abstract
Anti-harassment laws have existed in society since the 1980s, but the #MeToo movement and the subsequent wave of legislation exposed a chronic wound and a genuine historical pain. The suffering of millions of human beings (mostly women and children) was finally heard: those whose voices had remained unheard for millennia, who had always suffered abuse simply because they were physically weaker. This was an institutionalised and persistent historical injustice that had never been adequately addre