Parents believe that they can turn their children over to the teen activity centers or that the kids

Cruise Critic ran an article last week about the Top 10 Reasons Not To Cruise When Cruise Critic claimed Cruise Ships are Family Friendly and posted the photographs from a Royal Caribbean teen center (below), I had heard and seen enough. I responded with my article joint travel regulations vol 2 Top Ten Reasons Not To Cruise .
The purpose of my article is not to convince anyone not to cruise, but to educate consumers regarding the dangers inherent in and the consequences of cruising. It you want to cruise, that's your business not mine. But at least educate yourself before you expose your family to danger.
Close to fourteen million passengers will sail this year on cruise ships from companies based in the U.S. The cruise industry claims that 95% of the passengers believe that cruising is a positive experience. And I have no reason to dispute that figure. But that leaves 5%, or around 700,000 people, joint travel regulations vol 2 with a negative experience. Included in this group are parents whose children were raped or sexually molested on cruise ships.
Cruise lines are not legally obligated to report sexual assaults of children, or any crimes for that matter. Currently pending before the U.S. Senate is the Cruise Vessel Safety and Security Act, which will require - for the first time - that crimes be reported to the FBI and the U.S. Coast Guard. joint travel regulations vol 2 When this law is enacted, cruise lines will also be required to reveal the crimes to the U.S. public via a link on their web pages.
But at the current time, the only sources of information are when courts order the cruise lines to reveal the crimes during lawsuits. One good source of information is Dr. Ross Klein's joint travel regulations vol 2 CruiseJunkie . Dr. Klein testified before our U.S. Congress several times and concluded that Your Risk of Being Sexually Assaulted is Much Higher on a Cruise Ship Than in the Average American City . Based on data we obtained in court cases, Dr. Klein concluded joint travel regulations vol 2 that at least 79 children were sexually assaulted or harassed on Royal Caribbean cruise ships alone from 1998 to 2005.
The first case I handled involving sexual abuse of a minor on a cruise ship was in 1999. A pedophile crew member gave a 14 year old boy a dozen glasses of champagne and took him back to his cabin. He shaved the boy's pubic hair off and molested him when was was unconscious. The cruise line responded by offering the family 50% of their cruise fare for their troubles.
Since then, we have handled over 70 cases involving sexual assault, with many children as victims. We obtained, joint travel regulations vol 2 via a Court order, several secret internal studies by Royal Caribbean which concluded that sexual misconduct on cruise occurs frequently joint travel regulations vol 2 . At the same time, the cruise line's PR people were telling the American public that sexual assaults during cruises was rare . We also obtained spread sheets which revealed that there were 273 incidents of sexual misconduct on the Royal Caribbean fleet for a period of three years, including rape and sexual abuse of minors.
Parents believe that they can turn their children over to the teen activity centers joint travel regulations vol 2 or that the kids are safe alone in their cabins or walking the hallways and decks of the ship. Parents are encouraged to let their guard down, grab a cocktail or two, and relax.
The number one crime we see on cruise ships is when the parents stay out late at the disco or casino, and they leave their 12 year old son or 14 year old daughter alone in the cabin. Many kids get tired after a fun day at the pool or after an excursion ashore, and they don't want to go to the second seating at dinner. There are far too many cases where the cabin attendant will use their key card to access the cabin when the parents are away.
Victim organizations, like International joint travel regulations vol 2 Cruise Victims joint travel regulations vol 2 (ICV), have proposed good recommendations to address this problem. The ICV proposes deactivating the key cards of crew members after hours so they can't use them to get into the passenger cabins, using female cabin attendants rather than 25 year old males, or assigning supervisors to monitor the passenger cabins. joint travel regulations vol 2 Most cruise lines have ignored these recommendations, and conduct business as usual. Just last week we were contacted by the parents of a 16 year old sexually abused by a crew member who used a key card to get into the cabin when the parents were away.
The other most likely scenario is when men or older teenagers target 13 and 14 year olds in the youth programs or confront them when they are trying to make their way back to their cabins. To get an idea of how this happens, consider reading Passenger Indicted for Sexual Abuse of 13 Year Old Girl on Disney Wonder Cruise Ship .
Cruise lines do not perform background joint travel regulations vol 2 checks on their crew members. They rely on the hiring agents around the world to (hopefully) do that for them. But what kind of a pre-employment investigation can be done in Nicaragua, India, St. Vincent, or Belize? There are no computer databases or depositories of information for criminals or sexual predators joint travel regulations vol 2 in countries like these. The other problem is that cruise lines do not share their crime data. When Royal Caribbean fires a sexual predator, he can find work on another cruise line, like Princess Cruises, within a few months. We have seen it happen.
A major problem on cruise ships is alcohol. Cruise lines earn literally hundreds of millions of dollars a year selling booze. Older teenagers or young men can entice 15 and 16 year old girls to go back to their cabins and drink. Parents who have zealously watched over their children for 15 years can find themselves with no clue where their kids may be during much of the cruise. The Oasis of the Seas , for example, has several thousand cabins. A lot can go wrong by behind these closed cabin doors.
Compounding matters is that cruise ships have few security guards. joint travel regulations vol 2 Sometimes as few as two guards are on duty at night, and they do not actually patrol the passenger hallways. Most cruise ships have hundreds of waiters, assistant waiters, joint travel regulations vol 2 bar tenders and bar servers who work on only $50 a month plus tips, and whose job it is to push alcohol sales. But security guards? Maybe 2 or 3 are on duty at any one time, and they are responsible joint travel regulations vol 2 for the safety of 2,000 - 3,000 guests?
In the U.S., you can obtain a crime grid for every business and residential address in the U.S. If you want to know whether joint travel regulations vol 2 the local child care facility or sleepover camp has had a crime in the past, just ask the local police joint travel regulations vol 2 to run a crime report joint travel regulations vol 2 and the information is there for the asking. joint travel regulations vol 2 But cruise lines keep the crimes secret. Trust us, they say. We will take care of your kids. Don't worry, have fun.
But when things goes wrong, the cruise line will treat your family like criminals. There is no independent security or police joint travel regulations vol 2 authorities aboard the ship. You are on the high seas - a no man's land - often thousands joint travel regulations vol 2 miles from the closet FBI office. Cruise lines are notorious for covering crimes up. They do not want the legal liability or public spectacle of a crew member being led off their cruise ships in handcuffs. They will defend their employee and accuse little Susie of making things up. That's why some cruise lines, like Royal Caribbean, have never had a single crew member convicted of sexual assault of a minor in the company's 40 year history.
Quite frankly joint travel regulations vol 2 I'm disappointed that this article targets cruise lines. Certainly the same could be said of all inclusive resorts that have kids and teens programs. It most certainly could be said that sending our kids to sunday school at your local church is dangerous, all we have to do is look at the recent joint travel regulations vol 2 issues with the Catholic Church to verify that fact. It is the responsibility of parents, and all adults to ensure joint travel regulations vol 2 our children's safety. Let's not just target one industry for this issue, it is sad that abuse of children joint travel regulations vol 2 can happen anywhere, NOT just a cruise ship.
Education here is the key. I encourage all my family clients to drop in unexpectedly to the youth programs on the ships. Educating the children to tell the parents if something happened joint travel regulations vol 2 is equally as important. Sadly this same practice must be followed when our children go to church these days as we've all read the events recently joint travel regulations vol 2 involving Priests and other figures in a position of authority over our children.
You state in your article that the number one contributor is when the parents stay out late at the disco or casino. Do you not think that the parent being on a cruise should still be responsible enough to realize that they have to watch over their children just like at home is important? You also state that the cruise lines keep crimes a secret. This statement can also be applied to an even larger organization, the Catholic Church
When I was a law clerk in the early 1980's, I distinctly recall an insurance client stating that the next wave of litigation would be against the Catholic Church because of an epidemic of child predators. At the time, I thought joint travel regulations vol 2 he was crazy. But he was right.
The last three decades have seen the Church's denials, attacks on the credibility joint travel regulations vol 2 of the victims, and only recently an acknowledgment that there is a problem. A lot of kids continued to be victimized in the process.
Yes, parents must supervise their children, but most don't understand the risks inherent in cruising. Cruise lines remain in denial. Not only do they not warn the passengers, but they represent that kids are safe and sound.
My exchange with you was merely to state that the abuse of our children is a much wider problem than focusing joint travel regulations vol 2 on the cruise industry. For example, there are probably far more predators employed by the theme parks than the cruise lines. I would guess that the issue with the Catholic Church is only the tip of the iceburg.
We need stronger laws, AND stronger joint travel regulations vol 2 judges to levy the penalties against these offenders. You and I can discuss merits until the cows come home, but until the laws and the courts have some teeth, the situation really won't resolve itself. I am a former police officer and I can only voice