Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd
Lawsuit Brings To Light Discrepancy In Sexual Assault Stats
January 21, 2007
U.S. CONGRESS GETS WOOL PULLED OVER THEIR EYES
Testifying under oath before a House subcommittee, on December 13, 2005, industry executives said that from 2003 to 2005, 178 passengers on North American cruises reported being sexually assaulted, 24 people went missing and four others were robbed. Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd (RCCL) accounted for 66 of the 178 reports of sexual assaults.
However, maritime attorney James Walker, working a pending lawsuit involving 12-year-old twin girls who alleged that a crew member molested them, discovered the figures are considerably different, than what RCCL reported to congress.
According to the internal company documents the court ordered RCCL to provide Walker with, 273 people told Royal Caribbean that they had been the victims of sexual assault, battery, harassment and inappropriate touching between 2002 and 2005.
The cruise line handed over the internal records requested by Walker only after a judge threatened to fine the line $1,000 a day if it failed to comply.
The cruise line defends the figures, saying it was two different types of accounting for the complaints. The tally is 99 sexual harrassment claims, 81 sexual assaults, 52 inappropriate touching, 28 sexual battery and 13 other types of sexual incidents.
Since the cruise line only reported 66 sexual incidents to congress, it is unclear where the accounting is different, and yet still not perjury. By their own records, presenting to the judge in the case of the two minors, there were 81 sexual assaults. This apparently is somehow different than the 66 sexual assaults reported to congress. Then, there is the 28 sexual battery, that also seemed to be lost in the count to congress.
THE DEFINITIONS
According to Dean G. Kilpatrick, Ph.D. of the National Violence Against Women Prevention Research Center at the Medical University of South Carolina "many people still believe that rape occurs only when a stranger attacks an adult woman using overwhelming force. Using this definition, boys or men cannot be raped; girls and adolescents cannot be raped; no one can be raped by someone they know; and forced oral or anal sex does not constitute rape. Thus, attempts to discuss the topic are often frustrating because many people define rape differently."
Rape and other forms of sexual assault are defined federally, as congress would have requested, using the Federal Criminal Code (Title 18, Chapter 109A, Sections 2241-2233, the 1986 federal statute defines two types sexual assault, Sexual abuse and Aggravated sexual abuse.
Sexual abuse is defined federally as causing another person to engage in a sexual activity by threatening or placing that person in fear. Engaging in a sexual act if that person is incapable of declining participation in, or communicating unwillingness to engage in that sexual act.
Aggravated Sexual Abuse by Force or Threat of Force is defined federally as, a person knowingly causing another person to engage in a sexual act... or attempts to do so by using force against that person, or by threatening or placing that person in fear that that person will be subjected to death, serious bodily injury, or kidnapping.
Aggravated Sexual Abuse by Other Means is federally defined as, a person knowingly renders another person unconscious and thereby engages in a sexual act with that other person; or administers to another person by force or threat of force, or without the knowledge or permission of that person, a drug, intoxicant, or other similar substance
Aggravated Sexual Abuse with a Child is defined federally as a person knowingly engages in a sexual act with another person who has not attained the age of twelve years, or attempts to do so.
Florida law only identifies what they term Sexual Battery, under statute 794.011 and specifies, "Sexual battery" means oral, anal, or vaginal penetration by, or union with, the sexual organ of another or the anal or vaginal penetration of another by any other object; however, sexual battery does not include an act done for a bona fide medical purpose."
The federal definition is the looser of the two sets of definitions, as it specifies if the person only "attempts to do so", and given the cruise line was responding to a federal body, the federal definition should have been used. This means the larger numbers should have been reported.
Instead, the cruise line is claiming they used the state definitions, which was clearly a dodge of the accounting of the cases in order to diminish the public perception of danger to adults and children on their cruise ships.
Using language trickery to manipulate the figures, is like saying "I did not have sex with that woman", because the act was performed by the second party, and not in a traditional missionary position. It doesn't change the fact that sexual crimes were committed onboard cruise ships, and they were not reported to congress by RCCL.
It is Seinfeld accounting at best, but certainly no joke . . . I have to be in New York a week from today. But, you can't count today because it is part way over, and you can't the day I arrive because I am arriving in the afternoon, and you really can't count weekends because they go by so fast, so really . . . I will be there in three days, and that is how eight becomes three or 273 becomes 66.
