"Naked Law" by AVVO recently published an interesting article "What Happens to Cruise Ship Criminals?"
The article poses the following scenario:
"A group of young women take a seven-day cruise to the Caribbean, a trip they’ve been planning for months. The second night on board, they have a couple of drinks in one of the ship’s many lounges and bars. The bartender is attractive and flirty.
Later that night, he rapes one of the women in her cabin—something he’s done before because he always gets away with it. He knows full well that cruise companies generally do whatever it takes to cover up shipboard crimes. By the time his victim gets to port, it’s too late to get any real evidence, plus the maid steam-cleaned the DNA off the cabin carpet."
The problem with this hypothetical scenario is that it is not hypothetical at all. We have represented passengers who have been raped by bartenders, cabin attendants and even security guards on cruise ships.
The article mentions two of our client’s cases and also refers to an article by Cruise Law News.
First cited is an article by Julie Rowe in TIME Magazine entitled "Crime Rocks the Boats" which discussed the case of firm client Janet Kelley and the disappearance of George Smith during his honeymoon cruise with firm client Jennifer Hagel. TIME published its blockbuster article in March 2006 while Congress was convening its second (of five) hearings on the problem of cruise ship crime. It would not be until 2010 that Congress passed the Cruise Vessel Security and Safety Act which requires cruise ships to report shipboard crimes to the FBI and U.S. Coast Guard and to maintain rape kits aboard the ships.
AVVO also cited our article Cruise Ships Are A Perfect Place to Commit A Crime, And Get Away With It! in which we discuss the disturbing cases of passengers James Scavonne (Carnival), Dianne Brimble (P and O Cruises), Merrian Carver (Celebrity Cruises), Christopher Caldwell (Carnival), and George Smith IV (Royal Caribbean), as well as the disappearance of Italian crew member Angelo Faliva (Princess Cruises).
The new cruise safety law will not go into effect until 2012. In the meantime, there remains few arrests and even fewer convictions when crimes occur during cruises. The most recent alleged crime, involving a 17 year old who was allegedly raped after a crew member purchased her a half dozen drinks, resulted in a quick FBI investigation and no arrest. Royal Caribbean terminated the crew member and gave him a one way ticket back home. But the cruise line bartender who sold the booze and those on the cruise ship who observed the crew member drinking and fraternizing with the minor remain employed today.
The fired bartender is free to seek employment on one of the other 25 cruise lines which operate out of the U.S. The cruise lines who are members of the Cruise Line International association ("CLIA") do not share information with each other when a crew member from one of the CLIA cruise ships is fired for sexual misconduct.
In the case of firm client Janet Kelly, raped by a cruise line bartender on a CLIA cruise ship, the crew member applied for work on another line (Princess Cruises) and was accepted for employment. Sexual predators are emboldened by the cruise industry’s indifference to this problem.
Credit: Julie Rowe, Time Magazine