They can work to apologies to the actual victim, if made in some direct way. You might even get the victim to accept the apology. But all the people that feel victimized on behalf of the victim...they never forgive, and they will never move on. It is simply too easy to continue spewing their anger, they were already angry, this just gives them direction.
So, if you have done harm to someone, are you going to prioritize helping those you have hurt move forward, or are you going to prioritize your reputation?
I don't think the mob mentality of destroying someone who has hurt others with no way out is helpful or appropriate.
But if we want to be good people who treat people right, then we realize we have hurt someone severely, we try to make it right -- even if there will be a cost to our reputations, deserved or undeserved. Even undeserved. If it's the cost of making it up to someone you have hurt severely, that's how it goes, even undeserved.
Valuing only our reputation against the mob and not the well-being of the people who we have hurt and want to try to make it up to -- is sociopathic behavior. Refusing to ever admit, even (or especially) to ourselves that we have hurt someone is sociopathic behavior.
