I spoke this week with Char Rivette, executive director of the Chicago Children’s Advocacy Center, and asked how the flippant use of the word “pedophile” impacts the important work her organization and others like it across the country are doing.

“It shouldn’t be a term loosely flung around as a derogatory term,” Rivette said. “Whenever I hear this kind of thing I just think, ‘Oh great, here we go again, another way-out-there point of view that’s totally inaccurate, that totally misrepresents what’s going on.’”

She continued: “It just detracts and distracts from the real issue, which is that children are most likely to be sexually abused by a member of the family, a friend of the family or someone known by the child. Any time we start directing energy somewhere else, we are ignoring the reality that children need to be protected within their own family and groups. And we aren’t actually doing anything that protects children.”