Code of Conduct at events

[Adrian Bunk]

On Thu, Nov 11, 2010 at 09:58:37AM -0800, Ryan Golbeck wrote:
> On Thu, Nov 11, 2010 at 9:43 AM, Wichert Akkerman <wichert at wiggy.net> wrote:
> > On 11/11/10 18:23 , Ian Jackson wrote:
> >>
> >> Wichert Akkerman writes ("Re: Code of Conduct at events"):
> >>>
> >>> On 11/11/10 17:57 , Ian Jackson wrote:
> >>>>
> >>>> I _am_ suggesting that if the conference organisers receive a
> >>>> complaint that Bob seriously sexually assaulted Alice, they should
> >>>> investigate.  If on investigation they are sufficiently convinced that
> >>>> it's true, they should eject Bob.
> >>>
> >>> I think many of us disagree here: if such a serious accusation is made
> >>> it should be investigated by professionals, ie the policy.
> >>
> >> So if someone was at the conference and the organisers were convinced
> >> that they were stealing laptops, the organisers would just call the
> >> police and if the police don't arrest the culprit and imprison them
> >> right away, they would allow the thief to continue ?
> >
> > I am extremely sceptical of the capability of people to make correct
> > accusations or to prove them. The police should be much more capable to do
> > so than conference organisers due to their training and experience, and if
> > they decide not to arrest someone they probably have a good reason to.
> 
> Fortunately we don't live our lives requiring absolute proof for
> everything we act on.  Proof in these situations has already been
> pointed out to be extremely hard to establish, but that doesn't mean
> the events didn't happen or shouldn't be acted on.  People have to
> make decisions like this all the time without proof of what they are
> hearing.  Also, as has been pointed out, the burden of proof for
> finding someone guilty should rightly be a higher in a court, but
> requiring that standard socially doesn't seem to make sense.
> 
> The default position of favouring such a high standard of proof and
> without it doing nothing is exactly why these situations are prevelant
> and ignored.  Social pressure is what's going to change that.

The level of proof required at court is not that extremely high, and
if you don't reach that level of proof there's a high probability
that the person is not guilty.

>...
> -ryan

cu
Adrian

-- 

       "Is there not promise of rain?" Ling Tan asked suddenly out
        of the darkness. There had been need of rain for many days.
       "Only a promise," Lao Er said.
                                       Pearl S. Buck - Dragon Seed