Cruise Ship Law

Rapes are much more common that you would think on cruise ships. On one news show covering this topic (I think it was A Current Affair), stated that cruise ships are just big parties/ drink-fests which is partly to blame for so many rapes occuring on ships. Things like "ruffies" (a.k.a. the date rape drug) are put into girls drinks to get them wasted, something you wouldn't really think to have to worry about when departing on your dream cruise.

Most people depart with family or friends on their cruise vacation not even giving safety a though. There's a false sense of security when you are on a cruise, you think nothing can happen because the perpetrator would have no where to run. Actually, its really the opposite....crimes aboard cruise ships are hardly, if ever, prosecuted. Lipcon, Margulies & Alsina, P.A. discovered that one cruise line had 173 incidents of sexual assault or rape in a 5 year period, and not a single one resulted in a prosecution.

So the questions that come to mind are:
- What can the cruising industry do to make cruise ships safer?
- What can you do while on board a ship to ensure the safety of yourself, your family and/or your friends?
- When these horrible incidents do happen, how come nothing is done about it?

More information on cruise ship rapes can be found on the following sites:

CruiseRape.com: web site created by a cruise ship rape victim named April. There's her whole story as well as a video of her interview on A Current Affair.

http://www.lipcon.com/news_tv.shtml: several clips from Television shows including A Current Affair, CourtTV, MSNBC, Fox News, the O'Reilley Factor and more

We are interested in hearing all of your comments and experiences, if any, on cruise ship crimes and safety so let us know what you think and if you're going on a cruise STAY SAFE!