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Carnival Cruise Line Investigates Sexual Assaults

According to the New York Times, the world’s largest cruise line, Carnival, has admitted that its crew members were accused of sexual assault 62 separate times within the past 5 years. The company has investigated each these cases, which occurred once a month on average, but has not released any details to the public.

Carnival’s admission marks the first time a cruise company has publicly acknowledged that harassment and assault have occurred on its ships. Curtis Mase, a lawyer for the Carnival Cruise Lines, commented “Do these statistics suggest that Carnival ships are unsafe? Absolutely not.”

Carnival first minimized the seriousness of the assaults in a November statement which read, “it is at least 10 times more likely for a sexual assault to occur in a small town in America than on a cruise ship.”

The majority of the cases involved passengers and crew members. Media allegedly became aware of the story after a former employee filed suit against the company, claiming that she was attacked by an officer aboard a Carnival ship last August.

Sources:

AP - July 14, 1999

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