Congress to probe crime aboard cruise ships!!!

Congress to probe crime aboard cruise ships
House memo notes 177 sex crime reports, four robberies over 3 years

The Associated Press
Updated: 11:01 a.m. ET March 7, 2006


WASHINGTON - Ahead of a House hearing Tuesday to tackle the issue of
crime aboard cruise ships, a congressional memo details 177 sexual
misconduct incidents, ranging from inappropriate touching to rape, and
four robberies of amounts over $5,000 over a three-year period.

During that time, approximately 25 million people embarked on cruises
from North America ports, the memo said.

Disclosure of the data, supplied by Holland America Lines, Royal
Caribbean Cruises and others, is unusual because cruise lines are not
required by law to publish comprehensive crime statistics and criminal
law varies greatly on international waters.

Rep. Christopher Shays, R-Conn., wants to change that.

“I don’t have a comfort level that statistics from the cruise industry
are accurate,” he said Saturday in a telephone interview. “I’ve never
known statistics that are voluntary to be accurate.”

Shays, chairman of the House Subcommittee on National Security, is
working on legislation to make such reporting mandatory.

FBI Assistant Director Chris Swecker testified before Shays’ panel in
December that the FBI opened 305 crime cases on the high seas since
2001.

“We know all crimes aren’t being reported,” he said. “So I think a
requirement that they report crimes either to the FBI or to the Coast
Guard or both would be a start.”

Shays said he found it “unsettling” how quick the industry was to push
back at his efforts on reporting requirements. “I had to tell the
cruise industry that last thing to get us off this issue is pressure
to get off this issue,” he said. “It makes me suspect there is
something there that they don’t want to know about.”

He added: “I think the fact they don’t want us to know how many
security people they have is kind of curious.”

Little risk
James Fox, a professor of criminal justice at Northeastern University
retained by the International Council of Cruise Lines, said in a
statement issued by the council that, “While virtually no place — on
land or sea — is totally free of risk, the number of reported
incidents of serious crime from cruise lines is extremely low, no
matter what benchmark or standard is used.”

“The cruise lines cooperated with Congress in gathering these
statistics to further demonstrate that cruising is an exceptionally
safe vacation,” Michael Crye, president of the industry group, said in
the statement. He said 15 cruise lines submitted data for the report.

The subcommittee hearings come amid the highly publicized
disappearance of a constituent from his honeymoon cruise last summer.

In July 2005, George Allen Smith IV and his wife, Jennifer Hagel-
Smith, were aboard the Royal Caribbean Line’s Brilliance of the Seas
while as it sailed from Turkey to Greece in the Mediterranean Sea.

Smith, a 26-year-old lawyer from Greenwich, Conn., disappeared after
an apparent late night of drinking. Blood stains were found on the
railing of his cabin, but no body was ever found.

The FBI is investigating, and no one has been charged. Smith’s family
has accused Royal Caribbean of covering up the disappearance, an
assertion the company denies.


URL: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/11442684/from/RSS/

steinbrenner wrote:
Congress to probe crime aboard cruise ships
House memo notes 177 sex crime reports, four robberies over 3 years

The Associated Press
Updated: 11:01 a.m. ET March 7, 2006


WASHINGTON - Ahead of a House hearing Tuesday to tackle the issue of
crime aboard cruise ships, a congressional memo details 177 sexual
misconduct incidents, ranging from inappropriate touching to rape, and
four robberies of amounts over $5,000 over a three-year period.

During that time, approximately 25 million people embarked on cruises
from North America ports, the memo said.

Disclosure of the data, supplied by Holland America Lines, Royal
Caribbean Cruises and others, is unusual because cruise lines are not
required by law to publish comprehensive crime statistics and criminal
law varies greatly on international waters.

Rep. Christopher Shays, R-Conn., wants to change that.

“I don’t have a comfort level that statistics from the cruise industry
are accurate,” he said Saturday in a telephone interview. “I’ve never
known statistics that are voluntary to be accurate.”

Shays, chairman of the House Subcommittee on National Security, is
working on legislation to make such reporting mandatory.

FBI Assistant Director Chris Swecker testified before Shays’ panel in
December that the FBI opened 305 crime cases on the high seas since
2001.

“We know all crimes aren’t being reported,” he said. “So I think a
requirement that they report crimes either to the FBI or to the Coast
Guard or both would be a start.”

Shays said he found it “unsettling” how quick the industry was to push
back at his efforts on reporting requirements. “I had to tell the
cruise industry that last thing to get us off this issue is pressure
to get off this issue,” he said. “It makes me suspect there is
something there that they don’t want to know about.”

He added: “I think the fact they don’t want us to know how many
security people they have is kind of curious.”

Little risk
James Fox, a professor of criminal justice at Northeastern University
retained by the International Council of Cruise Lines, said in a
statement issued by the council that, “While virtually no place — on
land or sea — is totally free of risk, the number of reported
incidents of serious crime from cruise lines is extremely low, no
matter what benchmark or standard is used.”

“The cruise lines cooperated with Congress in gathering these
statistics to further demonstrate that cruising is an exceptionally
safe vacation,” Michael Crye, president of the industry group, said in
the statement. He said 15 cruise lines submitted data for the report.

The subcommittee hearings come amid the highly publicized
disappearance of a constituent from his honeymoon cruise last summer.

In July 2005, George Allen Smith IV and his wife, Jennifer Hagel-
Smith, were aboard the Royal Caribbean Line’s Brilliance of the Seas
while as it sailed from Turkey to Greece in the Mediterranean Sea.

Smith, a 26-year-old lawyer from Greenwich, Conn., disappeared after
an apparent late night of drinking. Blood stains were found on the
railing of his cabin, but no body was ever found.

The FBI is investigating, and no one has been charged. Smith’s family
has accused Royal Caribbean of covering up the disappearance, an
assertion the company denies.


URL: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/11442684/from/RSS/



US Crime Statistics from:
http://www.fbi.gov/ucr/cius_04/offen...ime/index.html

In 2004, there were an estimated 1,367,009 violent crimes nationwide. Of
these, aggravated assaults comprised 62.5 percent; robbery, 29.4
percent; forcible rape, 6.9 percent; and murder, 1.2 percent.

I really think the American politicians have lost their minds. In the
cruise industry, 305 crime cases in 5 years warrants an investigation
yet nobody cares about 16,404 murders in one year in their own country.
Are these guys nuts and why aren't Americans doing something about the
violence that exists right in their back yard? Its like a bad joke to be
honest.

Mike wrote:

I really think the American politicians have lost their minds. In the
cruise industry, 305 crime cases in 5 years warrants an investigation
yet nobody cares about 16,404 murders in one year in their own country.
Are these guys nuts and why aren't Americans doing something about the
violence that exists right in their back yard? Its like a bad joke to be
honest.

First, I don't know anybody that "doesn't care" about murder.

The point is nobody knows if the cruise numbers cited are accurate.
Cruise ships are not required to report any incident that happens in
international waters, and they certainly have major incentive to not
report them. I think it is pretty naive to assume that there were
only 305 "criminal" events just because that is what the industry says.

Patrick Danville wrote:
Mike wrote:

I really think the American politicians have lost their minds. In the
cruise industry, 305 crime cases in 5 years warrants an investigation
yet nobody cares about 16,404 murders in one year in their own country.
Are these guys nuts and why aren't Americans doing something about the
violence that exists right in their back yard? Its like a bad joke to be
honest.


First, I don't know anybody that "doesn't care" about murder.

The point is nobody knows if the cruise numbers cited are accurate.
Cruise ships are not required to report any incident that happens in
international waters, and they certainly have major incentive to not
report them. I think it is pretty naive to assume that there were
only 305 "criminal" events just because that is what the industry says.

I would tend to disagree. 16,404 murders a year, 45 every day. Does that
sound like American politicians care?

Even if we doubled the 305 criminal events - better yet lets more than
triple it and say 1000 criminal events took place amongst the 30 million
cruise passengers in the 5 years, that represents a crime rate of 0.003%
over 5 years so it is actually less than 0.001% yearly. So faced with a
country whose citizens are killing each other at a rate of 45 people a
day, the politicians think it would be a great idea to investigate an
industry with a crime rate of 0.001%.

Look at it this way, if we assume the cruise industry deflated its
numbers in order of 3 times and actually 1000 crime incidents occurred,
more crime is reported in ONE AFTERNOON in the US then occurred in 5
years on all the cruise ships reporting. You can't make this stuff up.
I'd laugh if it wasn't so sad. This is so typical of American media
over-hype and political dunderheads going along for the ride. One would
think their time would be far better spent getting guns off the streets
and out of the hands of children. Amazing.