A group of young women take a seven-day cruise to the Caribbean, a trip they’ve been planning for months. The second night on board, they have a couple of drinks in one of the ship’s many lounges and bars. The bartender is attractive and flirty.
Later that night, he rapes one of the women in her cabin—something he’s done before because he always gets away with it. He knows full well that cruise companies generally do whatever it takes to cover up shipboard crimes. By the time his victim gets to port, it’s too late to get any real evidence, plus the maid steam-cleaned the DNA off the cabin carpet.
Over 10 million people take cruises from U.S. ports each year, but we don’t often hear news stories about crimes committed on board. According to legal experts, though, crime is far more commonplace on cruise ships than in hotels or resorts. If so, where is the media coverage? What happens to the perpetrators? Do cruise ships have jails? And which country’s laws are invoked?
Passenger Rights, Or a Lack Thereof
American passengers on a cruise tend to believe that all of the rights and protections they enjoy on U.S. soil go with them on a cruise, but that’s actually not the case. Rights and laws on board depend on the country where the ship is at port, or, if at sea, maritime law. Maritime law is notoriously lax—the captain, who is under tremendous pressure to keep reports of crime on his ship to a minimum, has authority at sea. Furthermore, virtually all cruise ships sail under the flags of other countries that may be careless about investigation. Though the law states that the FBI must be informed of any serious crime against an American at sea, few actually are. Cruise lines have a lot to lose when crimes on board are reported.
Cover Ups?
Cruise ships themselves do not sail with law enforcement on board except for their own, private security guards—approximately five per 1,000 passengers—who are loyal to the cruise lines who employ them. Travel lawyers and security experts have testified that cruise lines prefer to handle onboard crimes internally with the line’s own lawyers working to limit or squelch liability. Crimes that are reported are rarely prosecuted for lack of evidence or witnesses—one report says the prosecution rate is only 7%. An organization called International Cruise Victims has worked to bring awareness to the problem, even claiming that many “disappearances” at sea are actually crimes that are never solved because cruise lines are so adept at cover ups.
So, What’s Really Going On?
Cruise line representatives argue that cruises are up to 30 times safer than in most American communities, which is why so little crime is reported. According to security and sexual harassment experts, though, crime is rampant on cruises because there is little or no criminal accountability on board.
The most common crime committed on cruises is reported to be sexual assault by male crew members, followed by theft. Victims of these crimes have been intimidated or met with apathy on the part of cruise line officials, who view every incident as a possible lawsuit. Though all ships have a “brig,” which is nothing more than a secure room, those most likely to be held within it are drunk and disorderly passengers. Criminal crewmembers are more often quietly put ashore, some of whom go on to work for other lines.
The New Laws
In response to the problem, President Obama signed a bill into law that addresses some of the gaping holes in ship safety practices. The Cruise Vessel Security and Safety Act of 2010 includes new rules about higher guardrails, surveillance systems, greater accountability and record-keeping requirements, rape kits and trained forensic sexual assault investigators on all cruises, information on all shipboard crimes through a website, information on jurisdictional authority for all passengers, and extensive crew training on crime prevention, reporting, and evidence preservation. Vessels found in violation of these requirements can be banned from entering the U.S.
Though the cruise industry fought the senate hearings that led to the the bill, they pay lip service to supporting it now that it has been passed. Hopefully, when the bill takes full effect in 2012, shipboard crime will greatly decrease. Until then, if you’re cruising, be vigilant. And remember, the majority of cruise passengers are not crime victims. So, after you lock up your valuables, try to have fun.
7 comments
Skip Jamal
You might want to Google Jim Walker, a maritime attorney who has a newsletter about cruising. There have been murders, rapes, attacks, disappearances, etc., on board cruise ships. Jim Walker gives examples of the kind of crimes that occur and what kind of recourse the victims or their families have taken. He includes the names of the cruise lines.
I Googled "crimes aboard cruise ships" and his name came up. I did this because we had booked a 11 day cruise to Northern Europe on Princess and wanted to educate myself about my rights and things to watch out for while on board.
I hope the law that was passed helps to reduce crime on cruise ships
Mike
So your now relying on Obama's law to help are people really that numb!!!!!
costi
i've working on cruise ships for 10 years. the security guards are not "loyal" to the crew members as people get fired every week for different reasons but never cover ups and security guards will only follow the very strict procedures. as for crew members "raping" guests in their cabin ??? come on people...who would be stupid to lose their jobs and get sent to jail for that ? remember cruise ships are a small environment 200-300 meters long so the only "escape" would be overboard! the only crimes i have witness in 10 years were fights between passengers or people jumping over board. as for crew, people got fire for only "pushing" somebody in the corner
AT
Why we always talk of crimes and American passengers only, it happens everywhere in all parts where Cruise ships sails, I have been a Seaman for almost 20 years in various Cruise companies, there was an incident when the law came in new in US that, crew could be arrested and charged if just over a complaint of Pax, one girl was seen hanging around a Bar tender all the time and one night was found disappeared with the Bar tender and was found later in a room with the said crew member, the crew member as we understand was not aware of her age and was arrested by FBI on the ships arrival in Cape Canaveral on charges of rape as the girl was later found to be under aged, repeated questioning and threats were meted out to the crew member and after the interrogation and after all crew abused him for bringing the company into disrepute, especially the country from which the crew belonged ridiculed him he went on the stair way and hanged himself to death, If Pax behave properly then there is very little chance of situations like this, who is at fault we can never know but for sure the parents of the girls and the girl was at fault too, so I warn both the Crew and Passengers to be careful and not play the blame game and limit their fun side especially the crew to not fall into death traps and also loose their jobs as now a days its very difficult to find jobs like before on cruise ships!!!
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Tomeka Yetter
Being there, I noticed that only a small minority prefer the wallets of sad, loner American made men.
Christy Cinkosky
Once I originally commented I clicked the -Notify me when new posts are added- checkbox and now every time a post is added I get four emails with the identical comment. Is there any means you'll be able to take away me from that service? Thanks!