I expect you are going to say rape, harassment, bullying, etc.

Add to the list of a number of crimes that include theft, drugs, wounding with intent, fire detectors (lack of or broken), maintenance in public areas and the list goes on. It might include murder…..

You are now confused. What is the editor talking about?

I’ll give you a clue. All these crimes are performed where the public meet in hundreds or even thousands and we watch them at least five days a week and often more than one “them”.

The “them” I am talking about is cruise ships. Rarely do the cruise lines publish crime data and worse, many crimes aren’t reported to the police authorities or even if they are, they’re rarely made public

Happily this is about to change. United States Senator, Jay Rockefeller, a West Virginia Democrat is heading the commerce committee to introduce legislation to require disclosure of all ship crime data and make the Department of Transportation responsible for consumer protection on cruises.

“This bill is the only way we’re going to make consumer awareness and protection a priority, since the cruise industry seems to refuse to take action on its own,” Rockefeller said in a statement yesterday.

Carnival Corp. (CCL:US), Royal Caribbean Ltd. (RCL:US) and Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings Ltd. (NCLH:US), the target of proposed legislation after high profile mishaps at sea, have now said they will voluntarily publish more data about crimes on their cruises.

Congress in 2010 required the U.S. Coast Guard to maintain a public website disclosing crime allegations arising on U.S. cruises. It is understood, however, the information was limited to probes completed by the Federal Bureau of Investigation only. The new policy will disclose all alleged crimes on ships worldwide.

Royal Caribbean have confirmed they will begin posting the expanded data for all of its cruise divisions starting Aug. 1 and the information will date back to the fourth quarter of 2010.

Does this make you feel safer about travelling on a ship?

When the data is made available, after independent checking, it might not.

In a recent article that appeared in Bloomberg written by Christopher Palmeri, he quotes Ross Klein, a professor of social work at Memorial University of Newfoundland in Canada. Klein has written four books on the industry, and he told the panel, “Access to reliable data is important for passengers who have a right to know the relative risk, including between one cruise line and another and ideally between one cruise ship and another.”

The article points to a number of high-profile incidents, including the January 2012 wreck of Carnival’s Costa Concordia off the coast of Italy, which cost 32 lives, brought cruise safety to the attention of government officials and the public.

Last month, the Coast Guard barred the Carnival Triumph, a cruise ship that was stranded in the Gulf of Mexico with passengers aboard, from returning to service following repairs after finding “three serious deficiencies” in its first inspection, Rear Admiral Joseph Servidio said this week.

The deficiencies involved the ship’s fire detectors, sprinklers and lifeboat drills, and were corrected the next day, Servidio, assistant commandant for prevention policy, testified at the hearing. The ship will be subject to quarterly examinations for three years as a result, he said.

It does seem incredible the cruise lines have been able to get away with this for so long.