Cruise Crime Data Doesn’t Add Up: Carnival Reports Lowest Incidents Since Pandemic

By Jim Walker on January 26, 2026

Carnival Freedom via Wikipedia

Last week the Department of Transportation (DOT) published its quarterly cruise crime data for Q4 2025. The data followed similar trends from the last several years, with one exception — Carnival Cruise Line (hereinafter Carnival) reported only three (3) crimes on its ships and zero physical assaults with serious injuries.

Carnival Crime Data Doesn’t Add Up

CruiseLawNews identified at least five (5) reportable crimes that occurred on Carnival ships from October 1st, 2025 to December 31st, 2025. This is at least two (2) more crimes than what was included in the DOT crime data. The crimes not included in the DOT crime data were two separate incidents where passengers were assaulted and received serious injuries.

A list of each story is at the bottom of this article.

The most likely explanation for the discrepancy is Carnival decided not to report the assaults to the FBI in order to make its ships seem safer than they actually are.

Cruise lines are required to report a physical assault if it results in a “serious bodily injury” pursuant to the Cruise Vessel Security and Safety Act (CVSSA) of 2010. The CVSSA does not define what constitutes a serious bodily injury, leaving room for reasonable interpretation. This results in violent crimes — even in cases where the assailant was arrested — never appearing on the DOT’s cruise crime data, such as the Minnesota mom who was arrested for assault on a teen.

In 2024, Carnival had a total of eighteen (18) physical assaults with serious injuries — an average of over 4 a quarter. In 2023, there were a total of 22 violent physical assaults with serious injury across the industry, and Carnival alone accounted for 14 of those incidents. Since 2022, 59% (44 out of 74) of reported physical assaults occurred on Carnival ships.

Conflict of Interest in Cruise Reporting Crimes

The narrow, subjective definitions of crime set by the CVSSA could still provide accurate data if a neutral third party made the determination on what crimes were reported. The reality is cruise lines themselves decide what crimes they should report to the FBI.

This means the companies with the strongest financial and reputational incentives to minimize cruise crime statistics are in charge of what crimes are reported. This is an obvious and profound conflict of interest. Cruise lines are heavily incentivized to underreport crime to maintain the image that cruising is a safe family-friendly vacation. Putting them in charge of reporting crime ensures crimes will go unreported.

There is also the problem that there is no accountability when a cruise line fails to report a reportable crime. There is no fine or other serious consequence when a cruise line provides false or incomplete information.

Carnival’s “Record Low” Crime Quarter

The legitimacy of Carnival’s record low crime last quarter comes into question considering the reporting limitations and conflicts of interest. The last time Carnival reported crime this low was in 2021 when COVID-19 brought the cruise industry to a halt. Do we really believe that Carnival’s 29-ship fleet had only three crimes over three months?

Carnival Cruise Line Has a Tradition of Lying and Misrepresenting the Truth of its Violent Cruise Ships

Carnival Cruise Line has a tradition of refusing to accept accountability and misrepresenting information it finds to be detrimental to its reputation and business interests. For example, when Carnival Corporation pled guilty to the second revocation of its criminal probation (after it extensively polluted, tried to cover the air and water pollution up, and then lied about it) in January of 2022, the Department of Justice stated the cruise line has a “culture that seeks to minimize or avoid information that is negative, uncomfortable, or threatening to the company, including to top leadership.”

This is an integral part of the problem with the violent crimes alleged to be committed on cruise ships it operates. A recidivist corporate cruise felon like Carnival, with its culture of cover-ups, lies and misinformation, will inevitably try to cover-up the crimes, blame the victims and lie to the public.

The DOT’s cruise crime data cannot be trusted until the CVSSA expands its crime definitions and an independent third party, such as the FBI, determines what is a reportable crime instead of cruise lines.

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