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Concerns About Journalistic Presentation:
The writer of this article wrote: �Greiner and Whinham want a registry to list the Wingets of the world.� I wish the writer would have been a bit more careful, and written �the Sean Wingets of the world� and not just �the Wingets of the world.� I wish journalists would be more sensitive. And no, I am not a Winget, but I still think a little more care should be used to avoid the appearance of lumping all Wingets into the same category. Nobody wants their family named used as synonymous with sexual deviance.
MORE Concerns About Journalistic Presentation:
The writer of this article also wrote �Then-deputy Weber County Attorney Gary Heward said about the young Winget, �He's dangerous, and he'll always be dangerous.��
I do not dispute that the statement was made. But I do take issue with the writer�s attempt to offer a medical-psychological prognosis on Sean Winget by quoting an attorney�s rhetoric from thirteen years ago. I hope nobody implies a medical-pschological prognosis on me by using an attorney's words. Remember...we actually require our attorneys to be one-sided, one for each side of an issue. I don�t think the writer�s use of the attorney quote was very intellectually honest, or respectful of reader intelligence.
Therefore, I sympathize with the writer, but I sympathize more with the Wingets...the non-Sean-Wingets of the world, i.e. all of them but Sean Winget. And if Sean Winget is really permanently bad for society, let's get somebody other than a prosecuting attorney who is paid to advocate one side, to quote for a statement on Sean Winget's long term prognosis.
I'm not perfect at my job either, and I suspect the writer of this article is above average in his profession. I still stand behind my points.
Probably true, but the majority of those on the registry in my neighborhood are pedophiles.
What I want to know is why there isn't a murder registry out there... or a major drug dealer registry. Those are the people I want to be aware of. They are 100 times more dangerous than the majority of the people on the registry. Remove, or give 3-5 year terms rather than 10years to life on those listed on the registry for minor offences and use the money saved to track these other miscreants.
Should those who commit sexual crimes be punished? Absolutely. Should it be level-headed and reasonable, with the idea that restitution is possible and that the fear of punishment does very little to prevent crimes from happening in our already sex-obsessed society? Yes.
That being said, I think the pendulum is finally beginning to swing the other way, and that the extreme paranoia about sex crimes that's existed the last couple decades is starting to taper off. People CAN change. Deal with it.
There are many problems involved with this subject. Not everyone on the list is a pedophile - some are scary, but the list lumps everyone together.
The real fact (based on surveys by the Federal DOJ) is that people who have been convicted are only really of great concern in their first year or two after release to the community - after all, a sexual deviant has *^%* little control. After 2 years the prospects of re-offense drops to about 30%. After 4 years it's in the single digits.
Still, after 10 years on the list (probability now basically 0) the recrimination and bigotry continue.
Finally, the nails in the coffin, is that the legislature has not made it impossible to have your record (for gutter peeing or whatever) ever expunged.
That is cruel and unusual punishment. No forgivness in Utah!
Adults in Utah should be VERY concerned with the overzealousness of this Registry, because any baseless allegation by someone you know who wants to hurt you can ruin your life.