The Al Capone theory of sexual harassment

• We developed the Al Capone Theory over several years of researching and recording racism and sexism in computer security, open source software, venture capital, and other parts of the tech industry.
• Brief historical detour
  • Al Capone got into the murder business in order to expand his successful prohibition-era bootlegging business
  • These crimes were well-hidden
  • Unlike his obvious wealth
  • So the government prosecuted him for failing to pay taxes on the income from his illegal business
  • This prosecution made criminals realize a need to launder money to stay out of bars
• The U.S. government recognized a pattern in the Al Capone case: smuggling goods was a crime often paired with failing to pay taxes on the proceeds of the smuggling.
• We noticed a similar pattern in reports of sexual harassment and assault: often people who engage in sexually predatory behavior also faked expense reports, plagiarized writing, or stole credit for other people’s work.
  • examples: Mark Hurd, Jacob Appelbaum, Randy Komisar
• Initially, the connection eluded us[, until we] remembered that people who will admit to attempting or committing sexual assault also disproportionately commit other types of violence and that “criminal versatility” is a hallmark of sexual predators. And we noted that taking credit for others’ work is a highly gendered behavior.
• [We] realized what the connection was: all of these behaviors are the actions of someone who feels entitled to other people’s property – regardless of whether it’s someone else’s ideas, work, money, or body. Another common factor was the desire to dominate and control other people. […] This connection between dominance and sexual harassment also shows up as overt, personal racism.
• So what is the Al Capone theory of sexual harassment? It’s simple: people who engage in sexual harassment or assault are also likely to steal, plagiarize, embezzle, engage in overt racism, or otherwise harm their business.
• Organizations that understand the Al Capone theory of sexual harassment have an advantage: they know that reports or rumors of sexual misconduct are a sign they need to investigate for other incidents of misconduct, sexual or otherwise.
  • Sometimes sexual misconduct is hard to verify because a careful perpetrator will make sure there aren’t any additional witnesses or records beyond the target and the target’s memory […].
  • But one of the implications of the Al Capone theory is that even if an organization can’t prove allegations of sexual misconduct, the allegations themselves are sign to also urgently investigate a wide range of aspects of an employee’s conduct.
• Some questions you might ask:
  • Can you verify their previous employment and degrees listed on their résumé?
  • Do their expense reports fall within normal guidelines and include original receipts?
  • Does their previous employer refuse to comment on why they left?
  • When they give references, are there odd patterns of omission?
• Another implication of the Al Capone theory is that organizations should put more energy into screening potential employees or business partners for allegations of sexual misconduct before entering into a business relationship with them
  • This is where tapping into the existing whisper network of targets of sexual harassment is incredibly valuable. The more marginalized a person is, the more likely they are to be the target of this kind of behavior and to be connected with other people who have experienced this behavior.
• What about people whose well-intentioned actions are unfairly misinterpreted, or people who make a single mistake and immediately regret it?
  • The Al Capone theory of sexual harassment protects these people, because when the organization investigates their overall behavior, they won’t find a pattern of sexual harassment, plagiarism, or theft.
  • A broad-ranging investigation in this kind of case will find only minor mistakes in expense reports or an ambiguous job title in a resume, not a pervasive pattern of deliberate deception, theft, or abuse.
• To be perfectly clear, it is possible for someone to sexually harass someone without engaging in other types of misconduct.
  • In the absence of clear evidence, we always recommend erring on the side of believing accusers who have less power or privilege than the people they are accusing, to counteract the common unconscious bias against believing those with less structural power and to take into account the enormous risk of retaliation against the accuser.