Trouble on the seas as cruise ship crime rates rise

Crime has always been a problem on cruise ships due to the large number of people confined onboard, with sexual assaults and rapes being particularly common. But the issue seems to have reached new heights this year. From January to March 2025, there were 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 biggest cruise companies, Carnival, Royal Caribbean and Norwegian, had 12, nine and five incidents reported, respectively.

Of the reported incidents, at least 23 “were reported rapes, 10 were sexual assaults and seven were assaults, which all reportedly happened on cruise ships,” said Fox 9. Other violent crimes also take place on ships and not only those operating 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 particular influx of sexual crimes, according to reports. In the past five years, Disney “has gone from having between one and three sexual 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 can you stay safe?

Experts say it often comes down to standard safety 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, you should “lock your cabin door at night, avoid leaving drinks unattended and never go into someone’s stateroom alone,” Fielding told The Independent. If walking to your stateroom or cabin alone, you should 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 can go to in an emergency, said Forbes.

And while crime rates on ships may be rising, cruises remain “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 trade relations for Cruise Lines International Association (CLIA), said to industry outlet TravelPulse. Almost all cruise lines “have a zero-tolerance policy when it comes to criminal behavior, and allegations of major crimes on cruise ships are extremely rare.”