Well, since this thread is about sexual assault... the first thing is probably to clearly distinguish between sexual assault and the wider range of sexual behaviors, both socially acceptable and non-acceptable. (staring at a woman is not sexual assault for instance-- and it would surprise me very much if "socially enforcing a norm of not staring" had a meaningful impact on reducing rape) The issues need be teased at, and the sexual assault part addressed for what it is.
When we're talking about assault, we're specifically speaking about the violent crime-- this is important both in order to not conflate non-violent crimes with violent ones, and to ensure that the gravity of the term and its severity is maintained. In order to address the problem of assault specifically, I think one would want to narrow down to actual incidents of assault as a basis of research to understand motifs/underlying factors, and understand how the factors that lead to assault can be addressed by the levers society has-- the punitive system, educational system, social system.
I'll state an obvious point, but I would hope that any type of policy, punitive or otherwise, would have some form of firm scientific research as the basis for enacting that policy-- some basis that we can expect the policy to give positive results. For liberals, we understand the importance of this instinctively when it comes to drug usage, but here I see confusion.
As a non-expert, a cursory glance over the top google results does not give the impression that the motifs/factors behind rape are settled science. Otherwise, there's an impression that the motifs are too diverse, and the profiles of rapists too diverse that confounds the process of making meaningful generalizations or consolidate around key, addressable factors. Probably a lot of good research of this does exist though, or if it doesn't, the subject doesn't seem like one immune to analyses that could provide a better understanding.
What I don't think would be productive is creating a culture of shame and blame against men for their sexual behaviors in general, driven by programming handed to them by millions of years of evolution. The OP is correct that males are almost universally the perpetrators of sexual assault-- but the reasons for this are not a mystery impervious to understanding through research and examination. Being male and being female are real and definable designations, and the two sexes are distinct in anatomy and biological programming. We are products of our evolution and shaped by it-- but we are also able, through science, to look at what the results of that evolution is and how it affects us.
While it's a different (but related) conversation than the main topic of this thread--as I noted in my first paragraph-- the topic of how we engage with human sexuality in general in society is an important one. In my view though, the road forward would be to try to foster a better understanding of sex and human biology in our society-- human sexuality, human courtship, is incredibly complicated; how much of our music, literature, TV programming, blogging, activities is centered around the frustrations of it?
Can you imagine though-- how a young man in his formative years would be affected by receiving education from an older man versed in evolutionary psychology, where they had honest discussions of the differences between men and women? How those differences evolved? What are the sexual and evolutionary pressures that created those differences? What are the sexual instincts he will grapple with as a developing male, and how/why do those instincts exist? What is it those instincts are pressuring males to desire? How do those desires differ from those of females? What are the observable behaviors of females, what are the theories of female desire? What are women looking for-- or-- how can I become a more desirable male? How can I become a BETTER MAN from the view of women?
For me, I’d have imagined such a course would have been transformative, and even better if wholly embraced by society.
Navigating courtship with women is partly a set of complex but learnable skills-- ones that more mature males are better at, and in teaching, could potentially alleviate a great deal of frustration in understanding, sexual frustration through greater success, and even the maturation into a more civilized individual with greater control over his desires through understanding of them.
And this doesn't just go for men-- especially for humans unique from other mammals, females are put through as much if not even greater sexual selection pressure from the opposite sex; which is why women will keep going on talking about turning 30 no matter how much feminism progresses. As much frustration as men go through to try and get more sex from women, women go through as much if not greater frustration (and urgency) in mate selection and trying to get more devotion and loyalty out of men. I would personally imagine young women as also being able to benefit from more detailed, insightful, and objective education on human sexuality.
It might even better her life and comfort if she could understand both why/how males are so powerfully visually oriented in their sexuality, how it makes them stare-- as well as how her own instincts have meaningfully evolved to give her apprehension about those stares, and help her avoid dangerous situations.
Could such education affect rates of sexual violence? I wouldn’t be surprised if it did.
Of course, I'm speaking of ideals. The current cultural climate around the topic makes it virtually impossible-- at least in the US. On the right, conservatives are conservatives... (and oh god evangelical conservatives)... and on the left, well the left seems to have forgotten that the sexes are even different. Or that humans have behavioral biology that can be studied and verified.
In other words, religiosity and PC culture are both too queesy to actually talk about sex honestly, ESPECIALLY with our youth.
And we haven't even gotten to how a poor broader understanding of human sexuality causes us to try to instill social norms that are incompatible, and therefore disastrous, with human behavior-- and then bitch when people incessantly break our stated norms for masturbation, abstinence, porn viewing, cat-calling, kissing, looking, or consent.
And even beyond our unwillingness to understand sex, the media as of late puts on full display this culture that seems completely unwilling to respect the basic tenants of reason or our liberal democratic values-- distinguishing between what is, and what isn't sexual assault-- believing innocent until proven guilty. It seems like we're going more backwards than forwards.
I'm for a humanist society, that society should work for humans. On economics, that means that the ideal system needs to provide for humans. On sexuality, that means that the ideal system needs to recognize what humans actually are sexually, actually desire sexually, and put in norms/policies/rules that make sense for that biology. The research on this is only going to progress and teach us more about Homo Sapiens, about US-- so let's let it teach us.