4 major cruise lines begin posting alleged crime statistics online

Disney Cruise Line, Carnival, Royal Caribbean, Norwegian post statistics on websites

ORLANDO, Fla. – Four major cruise lines, including Disney Cruise Lines, have begun posting on their websites statistics on reported alleged crimes and other incidents.

The Big Three -- Carnival, Royal Caribbean and Norwegian -- last month announced their intent to post the reports beginning on Aug. 1, but Disney Cruise Line did not reveal its decision until after the data was posted on its website.

The statistics reveal many more major crimes and other incidents are reported than previously known.

Since 2010, the Coast Guard produced reports that only showed crimes that had been investigated and closed out by the FBI.

In 2011 and 2012, there were 31 such reports. But another 99 reported crimes and incidents during those years were either not investigated or closed by the FBI, so they were not known publicly.

The data posted this week from the four major cruise lines show even more incidents -- 178 of them -- were known to the cruise lines during those two years, but not revealed to the public.

Not all crimes and incidents have to be reported to the FBI, depending on the nature of the incident and the nationalities of those involved, among other criteria.

While, as expected, those cruise lines with the most passenger reported the most alleged crimes, the numbers for Disney Cruise Line and Royal Caribbean were higher than might be expected, when compared to the others.

From Oct. 2010 through June 2013, Carnival reported 121 incidents, Royal Caribbean 91, Norwegian 20 and Disney 15.

The cruise lines maintain passengers are less likely to be victimized at sea than they are on land, but the statistics provided do not allow for a valid comparison, according to a professor and cruise crime expert Ross Klein.

The reports can be found here:


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