I get why it's important people understand why victims don't come forward but even if literally every person knows that, courts still need evidence to make a conviction. A world where everyone takes any allegation as fact obviously can't work.

This is my view. Personally I think it should be illegal to defame any persons name publicly with accusations of sexual assault, especially when there is no evidence. Even if there is "evidence", I think it should be decided in a public trial, and then, if a person is found guilty, then they can be publicly shamed.

I say this from the perspective of someone whose life has been ruined because of accusations before (not sexual ones, but criminal/drug ones). Imagine being accused of serious drug crimes, having a felony charge on your record for 4 years only to have it dismissed due to lack of evidence, and not being able to make any career progress in that time.

In the US we have a thing called innocent until proven guilty, but sadly this doesn't work at all when peoples lives can be ruined by mere accusations.

Victims of crimes should always be believed and crimes investigated, but that is entirely different from publicly ruining someones image due to a simple accusation.