The Bahamas Crisis Center held a press event this week where the rise in the number of sexual abuse referrals involving minors was discussed.

Director,  Dr. Sandra Dean-Patterson told reporters, “we continue to get referrals from the Police, from SCAN (Suspected Child Abuse & Neglect Program), from SAFE (Stop Abuse for Everyone) of children under 18, under 16, who are sexually assaulted. And so it is an horrendous problem for us to deal with who see the children, but for the children who experience it.”

The sexual assault of a 16 year old girl was reported by police earlier this week. The girl told her mother that she was taken to the Pinewood Gardens area by someone known to her and sexually assaulted. The two went to the Criminal Investigation Department to report the incident.

In the first two months of this year the Crisis Center 26 referrals involving children aged 8 to 16. More than 200 children sought assistance from the organization in 2026.

Dr.  Dean-Patterson expressed concern that some of the case involve individuals known to the child. She said, “initially we used to be very worried about stranger danger and strangers. Now we have to be worried about persons who children trust. And we also have to be worried about children talking on the internet to persons who they think are nice people and they end up grooming them, getting them to trust them and then the children end up meeting them and get sexually assaulted. It’s a problem that we as a country have to address and deal with and say no more.”