Trouble on the seas as cruise ship crime rates rise

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Cruises stay one of the most common selections for an straightforward and cost-efficient trip, but data reveals that there may be a downside: Crime rates aboard cruise ships are persevering with to rise and have reached an virtually two-year high in 2025. Crime on these floating cities isn’t a new phenomenon, but consultants say it’s important to stay vigilant as statistics increase.

How unhealthy is crime on cruise ships?

Crime has always been a downside on cruise ships due to the large quantity of people confined onboard, with inappropriate assaults and rapes being significantly common. But the issue appears to have reached new heights this yr. From January to March 2025, there have been 48 crimes on cruise ships reported to the FBI, according to data from the Department of Transportation. This marks the highest three-month period of crimes reported on cruise ships since April to June 2023, when the FBI counted 55 incidents. The United States’ three largest cruise corporations, Carnival, Royal Caribbean and Norwegian, had 12, 9 and 5 incidents reported, respectively.

Of the reported incidents, at least 23 “were reported rapes, 10 were inappropriate assaults and seven were assaults, which all reportedly happened on cruise ships,” said Fox 9. Other violent crimes also happen on ships and not only those working in the United States. In May 2025, a “57-year-old man was arrested and bailed on suspicion of murder and a 60-year-old was arrested and bailed on suspicion of manslaughter” on the Malta-registered MSC Virtuosa, said The Independent.

Disney Cruise Lines has been dealing with a specific inflow of inappropriate crimes, according to experiences. In the past 5 years, Disney “has gone from having between one and three inappropriate assault allegations on its cruises to reporting 15 assaults in 2023 and 18 assaults in 2024,” said Newsweek. As with all other ship incidents, the “crimes documented by the DOT are alleged and based on ship reporting, and do not reflect the outcome of any law enforcement investigation.”

How are you able to keep secure?

Experts say it often comes down to commonplace security measures. Cruise ships are “generally safe environments, but as with anywhere, it’s smart to take some common-sense precautions,” cruise content creator Jenni Fielding said to The Independent. Despite what the “headlines might suggest, cruising remains one of the safest ways to travel.”

If you are on a cruise ship, it’s best to “lock your cabin door at night, avoid leaving drinks unattended and never go into someone’s stateroom alone,” Fielding told The Independent. If strolling to your stateroom or cabin alone, it’s best to also be “mindful of who is around in the corridor.” Beyond this, all cruises will “have a security officer and a team of people responsible for the safety and security of passengers and crew” that you possibly can go to in an emergency, said Forbes.

And while crime rates on ships could also be rising, cruises stay “one of the safest vacation options in the world, with rates of serious crimes that are exceedingly lower than those on land due to multiple layers of security and the nature of cruising,” Charles Sylvia, the vice president of industry and commerce relations for Cruise Lines International Association (CLIA), said to industry outlet TravelPulse. Almost all cruise traces “have a zero-tolerance policy when it comes to criminal behavior, and allegations of major crimes on cruise ships are extremely rare.”