In 2022, there have been 87 reported incidents of sexual assault on cruise ships. There have been 79 for the primary three quarters of 2019, the yr earlier than the pandemic shuttered the trade for greater than a yr. Federal authorities have jurisdiction over sure cruise circumstances, relying on such elements as the situation of the ship on the time of the offense and the nationalities of perpetrators and victims.
The numbers have been a part of quarterly cruise line incident experiences the Transportation Division revealed final week. Statistics for October via December haven’t been launched. Over that interval, the experiences listed 16 assaults involving critical bodily harm and 14 thefts of greater than $10,000.
Sexual assault on cruises has led to lawsuits prior to now. A bartender on a Margaritaville at Sea cruise in Might was charged with getting into a passenger’s room and having intercourse along with her when she was not able to consent. He’s awaiting sentencing after agreeing to plead responsible to a lesser cost of abusive sexual contact. In a civil swimsuit, a second lady within the room at the moment accused the person of raping her, resulting in a being pregnant she “was pressured to terminate.”
A case reported to the FBI in March, in line with court docket paperwork, accuses a male crew member on the Carnival Dawn of raping a 17-year-old woman after approaching her within the health heart and insisting she wanted his assist to stretch.
Among the many experiences submitted by cruise traces from January to September 2023, 76 of the alleged intercourse crimes have been dedicated by passengers, 17 by crew members and 4 by “unknown” or “different” events.
On Carnival Cruise Line, which says it transports extra friends than its friends, passengers reported 36 incidents of sexual assault or rape within the first 9 months of the yr. Royal Caribbean reported 20 incidents, the next-highest quantity, and Disney Cruise Line reported 15.
Daniel Courtney, a South Florida trial lawyer who has targeted on circumstances towards cruise corporations in recent times, stated the variety of sexual assaults on cruises displays a failure by corporations to do extra to forestall them.
“The place are we as a society if nearly 100 folks a yr are alleging that they’re sexually assaulted or raped on a cruise ship?” Courtney requested.
“Even one assault is just too many,” Chris Chiames, chief communications officer for Carnival Cruise Line, wrote in an e-mail responding to questions from The Washington Put up.
Chiames went on to explain the size of the cruise line’s operations: 5.5 million friends sailed final yr throughout a fleet of 26 ships which can be primarily based out of U.S. ports. As a result of the Transportation Division information considers solely ships with U.S. residence ports, “we’re reporting on the operations of a a lot greater fleet, extra friends and extra U.S. operations than any of our rivals,” he wrote.
In circumstances that Courtney has dealt with, he stated he has seen a sample of male crew members preying on women and girls between ages 13 and 24. In most of the circumstances, crew members take friends to an space of the ship the place they know they won’t be monitored by safety cameras.
Courtney stated cruise corporations may assist stop sexual assaults by rising surveillance, each by putting in extra cameras and hiring extra safety officers. He additionally takes challenge with promotional supplies that describe cruises as “protected” for youngsters.
Chiames stated Carnival continues “to take a position thousands and thousands of {dollars} every year in enhanced surveillance cameras in public areas,” however these crimes usually happen in friends’ rooms.
In a YouTube video posted forward of spring break season final yr, Carnival Cruise Line President Christine Duffy warns that unruly habits wouldn’t be tolerated and that the corporate’s ships had elevated safety. Chiames additionally famous that “when friends check-in for his or her security drill, we additionally give all dad and mom of youngsters a security card reminding teenagers to pay attention to their environment, not go right into a stranger’s stateroom, and use logic each on board and offshore.”
The 2023 statistics mark the primary time these experiences distinguished between intercourse assault and rape. The Transportation Division started publishing the numbers after Congress handed the Cruise Vessel Safety and Security Act of 2010. That regulation requires that passengers have entry to a written information to the place to report crimes that happen on a ship, the power to obtain a sexual forensic examination onboard and confidentiality whereas requesting or receiving assist.
The regulation mandates that eligible cruise traces report lacking individuals and felony allegations made onboard to the FBI. Incidents listed on the 2023 experiences additionally embody assault with critical bodily harm, setting fireplace to or tampering with a vessel, thefts in extra of $10,000 and one “suspicious” loss of life.
In an announcement despatched to The Put up, the Cruise Traces Worldwide Affiliation trade group stated its members face “extra sturdy civil legal responsibility” in court docket below maritime regulation than do companies on land, the place “the sufferer should show the employer negligently employed or retained a recognized predator.” The affiliation additionally stated that “the clear public reporting of felony statistics for cruise ships is unprecedented in different sectors of journey and tourism.”
In accordance with CLIA’s 2023 state of the trade report, an estimated 31.5 million passengers took cruises final yr. That represents a 54 p.c improve from the earlier yr’s estimate and is nearly 2 million folks greater than passenger numbers in 2019.
The trade group commissioned a report from criminologist James Alan Fox that presents industrial cruise ships as “exceptionally protected by way of the dangers related to violent felony exercise.” The report exhibits charges of violent crimes at sea are a lot decrease than on land.
