Cruise Ship Crimes- Statistics Vary
Crimes on cruise ships is the topic of a recent New York Times article. The article starts off with news of a passenger having over $32,000 in jewels stolen, and she can't get an answer from the cruise line what happened to them. The questions is asked if cruise ships are as safe as being on land or not? The statistics released in the article vary from ICCL statistics, to FBI statistics to statistics that our law firm is aware of through deposition during some cruise ship crime cases we have handled.
Whenever a crime occurs on board a foreign flag vessel, there can be more than one country that has juridiction. The country which registered the vessel. The country in whose waters the crime occured. The United States if it involves a U.S. citizen or resident. The state government where the vessel began or finished its voyage. On top of that there are international treaties that can apply. It can be very confusing and difficult for law enforcement to get involved.
And that is perhaps one of the reasons that statistics can vary so much, and also why hardly any cruise ship crimes are prosecuted.
Read the entire New York Times story.
Comments
Our extended family used to take at least one cruise a year. Now that we've been reading up on the statistics, we cancelled our latest trip and have no intention of ever taking another one until cruise lines prove they are giving anything more than lip service to security. We have lost any shred of confidence in their integrity. I don't intend to have my daughters and cousins exposed to such danger. The rapists know they can get clean away with it. It's an outrage. On top of that, we also have to worry that they are just as concerned with fighting off terrorist attacks.
Posted by: Dominique Fleur | March 14, 2006 12:32 AM