WHY AREN'T CRUISE SHIPS REQUIRED TO REPORT CRIMES?

Yet another saga of 'the blame game' for cruise ship "accidents". Deaths, assaults, robbery, drugging, rapes... Who is to blame? The passengers themselves? The cruise ships with their obvious lack of safety or concern, and their non-obligation to report crimes? Cruise ships don't want to hurt their tourism...so of course they are going to keep mum about crimes, mishaps and controversies.




And in Mindy Jordan's case, I highly doubt she "fell" off the ship on her own doing. Is the FBI covering up for the cruise line? When will the public get to see the surveillance tape? Bring out the facts and let the public make the decision of whether it was an accident or not.


If you believe that cruise ships are safe and the business of tourism is all about the safety and happiness of their passengers and/or visitors, think again. Read this link (International Cruise Victims) and then make an educated decision. What are these companies and people in charge trying to hide?


"It's all about the "Benjamins"....bottom line.



By Troy Graham--Inquirer Staff Writer

The death of Mindy Jordan who fell from a cruise ship has recast a spotlight on an industry that has been criticized in recent years for its handling of onboard passenger mishaps. Industry analysts say the public's fascination with such incidents is out of proportion to their occurrence and may stem from the exotic nature of cruise ships, often described as international "floating cities."

Cruises are the safest vacation options available, analysts say, and most incidents are caused by passengers' own behavior. That seems to be the case with Mindy Jordan, 46, of Pine Hill, who fell overboard while attempting to climb from the balcony of her stateroom to an adjacent balcony, according to the Norwegian Cruise Line.

But in recent years, critics of the industry have said the cruise lines do a poor job handling shipboard crimes and other major incidents. Some have accused the companies of covering up incidents and distorting crime statistics.

Ross Klein of the Memorial University of Newfoundland's school of social work has tracked cruise ship mishaps. According to his Web site, 99 people have gone overboard since 2000, including 22 in 2006 and 20 in 2007.

About 13 million people, 10.6 million of them Americans, went on a cruise last year, according to an industry expert.

Cruise lines are not required to report crime statistics against U.S. citizens to the FBI and have been reluctant to provide the data to outsiders, said Ken Carver, who co-founded the group International Cruise Victims after his daughter went missing on a ship in 2004.

"No one knows what the crime rates are because no one can get to the information," he said. He pointed to congressional testimony from industry executives that 178 passengers on North American cruises had reported being sexually assaulted between 2003 and 2005. But one cruise line, Royal Caribbean, said in internal documents turned over in a civil suit that at least 273 of its passengers reported sexual incidents in a shorter period of time.

Read rest of article HERE