Cruise ship sex assault complaints almost double in 5 years, including shocking number of rapes: FBI data
Sexual assault complaints on cruise liners have almost doubled in five years, with 131 sex assaults reported on board vessels in 2023, according to FBI data.
Shockingly, some 79 of those complaints were of rapes. Watchdogs point to the exploding popularity of cruises and easy availability of alcohol on board as factors that have contributed to crimes at sea.
“It has become known by sexual predators that cruise ships are a good place to get away with bad things,” veteran Miami maritime lawyer Mike Winkleman told The Post.
“There’s a sense that when you are on a cruise ship, you have a better chance to get away with bad acts at sea than on land.”
Allegations of maritime sexual misconduct burst into the spotlight last week after a pair of Kentucky women claimed they had been drugged and sexually assaulted while on a Bahamas cruise vacation.
The incident allegedly happened at a resort Dongayla Dobson and Amber Shearer visited during a land excursion where they claim their drinks were spiked by wait staff. As they were off their ship at the time, the Royal Bahamas Police are handling their case.
A spokesperson for the resort in the Grand Bahama has said security footage from the day does not match the women’s account of what happened. The investigation remains ongoing.
Both women have also said Carnival failed to alert them to a US State Department travel advisory for the Bahamas until after their ordeal.
All companies operating cruises into and out of US ports must submit major incident reports to the FBI on assaults, suspicious deaths, missing persons, thefts of items worth more than $10,000 and sex-related crimes that happen on board.
It’s not clear how many of the cases reported to the agency in 2023 have led to arrests, but the number is a stark increase from the 77 sex assaults reported in 2018. Rapes were not reported separately from other sexual assaults in th earlier data.
In over a dozen lawsuits reviewed by The Post filed in Miami federal court last year, alcohol played a factor in almost every case. All-you-can-drink packages aboard some cruise ships start as low as $60 per passenger per day.
Another maritime attorney, Jack Hickey, said: “Cruise lines derive a great percentage of their revenue from selling drinks, from drink packages. They do that in a very liberal manner.”
The cases describe a variety of attacks – most allegedly perpetrated by staffers.
The alleged crimes occurred in areas such as DJ booths, as well as secret employee areas outside the view of surveillance cameras.
Several cases describe women being given drinks by workers and suddenly teetering on the edge of consciousness. Other lawsuits involve offenses against minors.
In one ongoing case, a teen female was approached by a staffer in the fitness area of a Carnival cruise ship last March, and offered free stretching services. She accompanied the man to a private area and he allegedly sexually assaulted her.
The girl’s cousins grew concerned after she didn’t return to the gym and eventually found her being molested by the worker, according to court papers.
“What the f— are you doing to my cousin?” she screamed at the worker, who denied any wrongdoing.
In a case filed last month, a woman claimed that an employee of a Celebrity cruise ship offered her a drink as she returned to her bar seat from a trip to the restroom.
She “drank the drink which caused her to feel a lack of physical coordination and severely decreased motor skills,” according to the complaint. “She also feels as if she had been sedated.”
The staffer then led her up several decks to a cabin and raped her, the suit claims.
In a case filed against Royal Caribbean, a woman contends that she was given a drink by an employee while on an April 2022 cruise, blacked out, and was raped.
The suit states that she later tested positive for fentanyl after she returned home from the trip.
Victims in cruise sexual assaults are reported to have been with their husbands and children during the trips, compounding their trauma.
In another ongoing suit, a woman said she was with her friend at the bar of the MSC Meraviglia cruise ship in February 2022. Her husband and other members of their party were elsewhere on the vessel.
After last call, the two women requested another drink.
The bartender told one of the women to follow him to a private area where he would provide her another beverage.
He then overpowered her and forced her to perform oral sex on him, court papers state. Her spouse had frantically searched the area for her and eventually walked in on the attack, according to the suit.
Carnival, Royal Caribbean and MSC cruises all did not return The Post’s requests for comment.
Hickey contended that cruise lines are fiercely protective of their reputations, and vigorously contest court claims which are made against them.
The attorney also highlighted risks posed in ship sections dedicated to teens — including dancing areas.
One ongoing suit filed by the parents of a teen female claims that she was sexually assaulted inside a bathroom by another passenger in a restroom connected to a disco.
Sally Andrews of the Cruise Lines International Association, an industry trade group, countered cruise passengers are in far less peril aboard cruise vessels than on shore.
“Cruise ships are one of the safest vacation options in the world, with rates of serious crimes that are exceedingly lower than those on land due to multiple layers of security and the nature of cruising,” she said.
