JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – A sexual assault survivor is demanding cruise lines do more to protect their customers as new federal data shows sexual assaults rose on cruise ships in 2023.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation reported more than 100 sex crimes on ships embarking and disembarking in the U.S.
In February 2006, Laurie Dishman said her life changed forever after booking a cruise from California to Mexico with her best friend Michelle.
“We had boarded the ship and didn’t know what awaited us, we just thought we were going to have a good time,” Dishman said.
The good time didn’t last past the second night.
That’s when Laurie said a security guard on the cruise raped her inside of her cabin.
“I had her a knock at the door and when I went to open the door thinking it was Michelle, there was no keyhole, there was no latch no way to check who it is. As I open the door, I can still see the light now, he forced his way into the room on top of me holding me down by my throat strangling me,” Dishman said.
But but but that’s impossible! Cruise lines don’t allow [People Forced to Register] onboard. The registry keeps them safe.
Another example of someone not on the registry and someone in a position of authority who commits a sex crime. I don’t know what the answers are for protecting people on cruise ships other than people protecting themselves instead of relying on others for protection.
All this time, cruise operators have relied on registries to help keep their ships safe from sexual assault incidents. You see how well that worked out.
Read the DOT link w/in the article for data back to 2010 on what crimes have been committed aboard ship within each cruise line. You may be amazed at what you find, not all sexual in nature, and why which cruise line bans registrants.
Then read the website of the cruise victim association to understand who is advocating for banning registrants from cruise lines.
Yes, cruise lines rely on registries to keep them safe but we all know that is false security, as seen here. However, they can also say they are doing their best to keep the lines safe and secure by these bans when they market and sell cruises.
Because of my 290 conviction back in 2000, I’m not allowed on Cruise ships and truthfully I don’t care. A floating hotel just doesn’t sound exciting to me. 🚢
Several thoughts come to mind… Thank you ACSOL for posting this story.
My first thought, that came to me the moment I read the headline was, “Oh F Florida! What kinda crazy is this one going to be?” Florida has earned that!
Was this Security Guard a [Person Forced to Register], because of he wasn’t this story says nothing about the registry or recidivism. Still important for this community to be aware of, but… instead of living in the real world, where NOTHING the State has done over the last 20+ years has kept crimes like this from continuing to escalate, we’ll just escape to a fantasy world where doing more of the same stuff we’ve been doing will magically “fix this”.
The response to this is going to make things so much worse, the next woman caught in this situation, may not live to tell the tale. No matter what a person does, no matter how many times they did it…you can only make them die in prison once! Oh, and not all decisions made in a panic are rock solid wisdom in action.
Jeffery’s very first time was a panic decision he made to keep certain things secret. Years later, he realized he had other things he needed to keep secret just as badly. Died in prison, but just once, for all. Funny thing about that, if he’d been sentenced to death, he might still be alive today! If he had gotten a death sentence, he wouldn’t have been part of the work crew of fellow inmates with nothing left to loose, who beat him to death. There’s a certain irony to that that I appreciate. 😁
Well – for this victim the Registry didn’t help protect her from the security guard rapist because – well, he wasn’t REGISTERED!
This happened in 2006. This should never happen to anyone . However,she has made a career out of being a victim. Pretty easy to follow the real agenda here $$$
I’m so confused—cruise ships literally bar all PFRs, so they should have the lowest rates of sexual assault in the entire world. What happened??? /s