CNN: Cruise Ship Sexual Assault Reports Up 67%

According to a CNN analysis of the U.S. Department of Transportation’s cruise crime report, cruise ship sexual assault reports increased by 67% in 2019 as compared to the same period in 2018.

We blogged about this a couple of days ago but thought that this story deserved to be covered again. From July 1, 2019, to September 30, 2019, 35 people reported sexual assaults on cruise ships which call on the U.S. These numbers do not include foreign cruise ships that only sail overseas.

In previous years the majority of cruise ship sexual assault reports involved cruise ship crew members assaulting passengers. This trend seems to have changed. Now, the majority of reports identify passengers as the perpetrators. In the most recent report, 27 out of the 35 incidents involved allegations against a passenger, while five involved allegations against crew members. Three were classified as unspecified.

Of all the cruise lines Carnival saw the most reports of sexual assault, 20, while Royal Caribbean was second with less than half that total at 8 reports.