More men fear false accusations of sexual harassment

Men have become more afraid of being falsely accused of sexual harassment or sexual assault, AD reports from the annual Public Monitor survey that will be published on Monday. The willingness to discuss and report sexually transgressive behavior is increasing, commissioner Mariëtte Hamer reported. False accusations are very rare and even real accusations rarely make it to the courtroom.

Hamer is the government commissioner for sexually transgressive behavior and sexual violence, a position created after the sex abuse scandal surrounding the reality TV program The Voice.

“I predicted this when we started,” Hamer told AD. “Many men say: ‘I will no longer go in the elevator alone with a woman.’ When I then ask: ‘What are you afraid of?’ they answer that they are not afraid that the woman will jump on them, but that they will get falsely accused.”

False accusations are very rare, she said. And the fear that a false accusation will ruin a man’s life is largely unfounded when even real accusations hardly ever end up with the perpetrator prosecuted. Trouw recently reported that not a single rape or sexual assault case has reached a Dutch courtroom since 1 July 2024, when a new law took effect that made more forms of sexual misconduct punishable. The police have around 4,000 sexual violence cases that have not been investigated in the eight months since the law took effect. The police estimate that around 1,000 reports from 2024 could go to court under the new category of “rape or assault without coercion.”

According to the Public Monitor, over 1.7 million Netherlands residents aged 16 and over were confronted with sexual misconduct last year, ranging from sexual remarks to unwanted touching to rape. It occurs everywhere - on the street, in the gym, online, at work.

At the same time, only one in ten Dutch say they have ever been guilty of sexually transgressive behavior themselves, the survey shows. That is remarkably few given that six in ten women and two in ten men have experienced sexual harassment or -assault. More than half of respondents said that they don’t think about their own behavior and whether it can be experienced as transgressive. Three-quarters of Dutch said they don’t find it important to stay within other people’s boundaries.

Society needs to change, Hamer said. “The solution is not that we stop flirting, giving complaints, or avoiding contact. That would be a shame. It is about considering whether what you say and do is also nice for the other person. That you listen to each other, do not touch each other inappropriately, pay attention to how the other person reacts, and check if in doubt. A lot is still possible, as long as both of you enjoy it.”