Cruise Lines Disclose Crime Data in Advance of Next Week's Congressional Hearing on Cruise Ship Safety
Miami Herald - FL,USA
Posted on Sat, Mar. 04, 2006 BY AMY MARTINEZ
The world's major cruise ship operators have disclosed that 204 criminal or potentially criminal incidents happened aboard their ships in the past three years. Analyst Nicholas Palarino notes in the memo that some 30 million people took cruises during the same three-year period, suggesting that crime on cruise ships is somewhat rare. Even so, Palarino recommends that cruise lines be more forthcoming with passengers about the risks involved with cruising.
I believe the 30 million people figure is bogus and very misleading. There have been 47 people go overboard since the year 2000 and most incidents involve cover-ups by the cruise lines and/or poor or delayed investigation and mishandling of evidence and the contamination of crime scenes. Please DO NOT let the ICCL and cruise industry keep using the figure of 30 million passengers in the last three years when comparing crime statistics with metropolitan areas.
1 – When ICCL refers to the figure of 30 million passengers is bogus very misleading. There are only about 200,000 beds altogether and they are not always full. Crime statistics should be compared to a city of about 125,000 or less since the ships are not always full and passengers spend at least 25% of their time on shore and the ship crime statistics do not include crimes while on shore. We are not even sure if all 200,000 beds are accounted for by ICCL. On their web site they say there are a total of 184 ships with total births of around 200,000 yet ICCL only represents 90 ships or definitely less than 200,000 births. To get the 30 million passenger figure, ICCL multiplies the 200,000 berths by 3 years times 52 weeks a year and thus inflate the population used for crime statistic comparisons by a factor of 156. That is like saying that New York City has a population of 1.5 billion or 156 times about 10 million people.
2 - There are probably many categories of crime that are not counted by the cruise lines. I believe they do not count crimes unless they are reported before they leave the ship. They may not count robberies of less than $5,000. And crewmembers are quietly told not to report crimes. The case Kendall Carver's daughter was not even reported as a crime. Letting the cruise industry keep their own statistics is kind of like asking the mafia how much money they have laundered in the last three years. ATTENTION ALL JOURNALIST and GOVERNMENT OFFICIALS: Someone Needs to Evaluate the raw data from which ICCL gets their conclusions.
3 - The crime figures for cruise vacations should be compared with the crime statistics for a gated community not just a general metropolitan area. The crime statistics do not include in data on crimes reported by crewmembers and they are part of the smaal city, too. So we should expect crime to be less on the cruise ships than it is in a gated community with no lower class citizens.
4 - It is not just the fact that the numbers of crimes are under-reported by the cruise industry it is the high percentage of cases that are not investigated or prosecuted properly and the fact that there is no data collected by an unbiased authority.
Posted on Sat, Mar. 04, 2006 BY AMY MARTINEZ
The world's major cruise ship operators have disclosed that 204 criminal or potentially criminal incidents happened aboard their ships in the past three years. Analyst Nicholas Palarino notes in the memo that some 30 million people took cruises during the same three-year period, suggesting that crime on cruise ships is somewhat rare. Even so, Palarino recommends that cruise lines be more forthcoming with passengers about the risks involved with cruising.
I believe the 30 million people figure is bogus and very misleading. There have been 47 people go overboard since the year 2000 and most incidents involve cover-ups by the cruise lines and/or poor or delayed investigation and mishandling of evidence and the contamination of crime scenes. Please DO NOT let the ICCL and cruise industry keep using the figure of 30 million passengers in the last three years when comparing crime statistics with metropolitan areas.
1 – When ICCL refers to the figure of 30 million passengers is bogus very misleading. There are only about 200,000 beds altogether and they are not always full. Crime statistics should be compared to a city of about 125,000 or less since the ships are not always full and passengers spend at least 25% of their time on shore and the ship crime statistics do not include crimes while on shore. We are not even sure if all 200,000 beds are accounted for by ICCL. On their web site they say there are a total of 184 ships with total births of around 200,000 yet ICCL only represents 90 ships or definitely less than 200,000 births. To get the 30 million passenger figure, ICCL multiplies the 200,000 berths by 3 years times 52 weeks a year and thus inflate the population used for crime statistic comparisons by a factor of 156. That is like saying that New York City has a population of 1.5 billion or 156 times about 10 million people.
2 - There are probably many categories of crime that are not counted by the cruise lines. I believe they do not count crimes unless they are reported before they leave the ship. They may not count robberies of less than $5,000. And crewmembers are quietly told not to report crimes. The case Kendall Carver's daughter was not even reported as a crime. Letting the cruise industry keep their own statistics is kind of like asking the mafia how much money they have laundered in the last three years. ATTENTION ALL JOURNALIST and GOVERNMENT OFFICIALS: Someone Needs to Evaluate the raw data from which ICCL gets their conclusions.
3 - The crime figures for cruise vacations should be compared with the crime statistics for a gated community not just a general metropolitan area. The crime statistics do not include in data on crimes reported by crewmembers and they are part of the smaal city, too. So we should expect crime to be less on the cruise ships than it is in a gated community with no lower class citizens.
4 - It is not just the fact that the numbers of crimes are under-reported by the cruise industry it is the high percentage of cases that are not investigated or prosecuted properly and the fact that there is no data collected by an unbiased authority.
posted by Timalantoo | 3/04/2006 11:09:00 AM
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