MEGAN MCARDLE: Scandals and Outrage Won’t End Sexual Harassment.

What comes across in the accounts of Weinstein’s behavior is certainly not a man who was unaware of the transgressive nature of his actions. Would Harvey Weinstein have green-lit a movie where the hero behaved like Harvey Weinstein? Of course not. Because he would have known that audiences would hate that man; you cannot be a successful moviemaker without an intimate understanding of your culture’s mores.

No, what you see in the allegations against Weinstein is not ignorance of right or wrong, but a man who seems to have enjoyed doing wrong things. Teaching such a man that something is not merely wrong, but really, really, really wrong may only increase his enjoyment.

Social norms can, and do, shift the penalties for that wrongness, especially when they foster legal change. Most companies these days are unwilling to keep most proven harassers around, because the law now opens up the company to huge liability if it does. But in industries that work on a star system — like media and sports — there are employees who bring in so much money that it would still be cheaper to pay off the victims than to lose the star.

This is especially true when you have no firm underlying moral code.