Cruise Bruise Blog
April 17, 2009
April 17, 2009
FBI Profiler Says: Alone Women Become Very Easy Victims

FBI profiler Clint Van Zandt in response to a wave of attacks against women from Boston, Massachusetts to Rhode Island by a single predator says, "Something set this guy off within the last week or so, a need for money for drugs or something like that. If he can get a woman by herself, she becomes a very easy victim.”

I wanted to go back to this subject, which I have addressed several times, once after the alleged sexual attacked on a Coral Princess passenger. What Van Zandt says, is what I have been saying, but I want to go one step further now.

As humans we have three tools to rely on when it comes to survival. They are intellect, emotion and instinct. All three can elicit a very strong physiological response within us.  I like to call them the heart, the mind and the soul. The heart represents emotion. The mind represents intellect. The soul represents instinct.

When the mind has problems dealing with something it can trigger a physical panic attack. Anticipation can trigger such excitement it can cause a tremor from slight to so severe it can be seen by the naked eye. Love, happiness, sadness including depression, greed, anger and fear can trigger tears as well as tremors.

With these two very strong responses to things the heart and mind encounter everyday the single most important survival tool, the soul or instinct,  can be clouded by the other every day thoughts and emotions affecting our body.

It is my belief, that while the instinct of women can be very strong, I know mine is, the message it sends to our body, a feeling of agitation or anxiety can be confused with other emotions related to pleasure. The physiological response to either is similar, if not the same.

This means when a woman is meeting with a man, whether it be her spouse, lover, co-worker, employer, associate, friend, neighbor or potential new romantic interest she could be experiencing agitation or anxiety for any number of reasons related to the heart and mind, other than danger.

When danger is detected sometimes long before an attack actually takes place, it is not being understood, perhaps even confused as the physiological effects from love, lust, greed or anticipation dominate the intellect.

This makes a woman extremely vulnerable. She is not listening to her soul sending urgent messages that danger is imminent. She is mistaking the signals for the physiological response to mind and heart.

It is important for all women to learn to separate the signals the body receives, so they can be identified and easily recognized as the instinctive warning signs of danger. This is the most important part of being and staying safe.

The early signs sometimes only come a few minutes before disaster, leaving little time to react. Noticing them immediately can make the difference between life, death, robbery or sexual assault.

Intellectually, the red flag for danger is to be lead into a situation where the woman is alone, away from the pack. On a cruise, embarking on the cruise is the biggest step towards this isolation. It should be enough for a woman to take extra precautions to protect herself.

I think the problem is that woman do not consider those they are sailing with, friends, family, neighbors, co-workers and such as a threat. Obviously, if they did, they wouldn't have gone on a cruise with these people. Yet, statistically they are the biggest threat.

Once on a cruise, the woman is away from law enforcement and the laws of civilized nations. This is a major step forward in the isolation process. Once on the cruise, she has to be separated from those who will protect her.

A woman is not going to be robbed, raped and thrown overboard by a stranger with her loved ones within inches of her. Nor can a trusted "love one" toss her overboard in the presence of others, where the intent is to commit the perfect crime.

Since women do not take cruises with the intent of being on high alert all the time, understanding and recognizing the physiological signs of instinct identifying a danger is the key to safety, not just on a cruise, but all the time.

I am not a psychologist or psychiatrist, this is not qualified medical advice. It is the advice from my own personal experience. I don't need a university degree to tell you what I have discovered during my lifetime, no more than I need a law degree to tell you that if you survive after the ship sinks, but your spouse or minor child don't, you have legal recourse. Some things are just plain obvious. It is the obvious however, that are so frequently oblivious to so many.

April 17, 2009
Overboards Are Now Updated

You've been there, that link on the "Missing Menu" for Overboards By Cruise Line. The page had become so huge, I had downsized the text to the point I needed a microscope to read it.

When I don't like a page, I know many of you don't either. It has just been a matter of finding the time to change it, which I did yesterday.

The page was cluttered and it was hard to find what you were looking for. Not any more. I spent yesterday getting that one page expanded into 18 pages.

Those 18 pages represent 17 cruise lines with missing, overboard, overboard deaths and overboard murder cases featured on this site, with considerable case information. We know the names, we know the people, we know their families. This is just going to make it that much easier to find them on Cruise Bruise.

The last page, which is actually the original single page, is now a collection of incidents on "Other Cruise Lines". It begins the category section for the individually featured cruise lines that have had overboards.

The text is larger and a few cases that really didn't really belong in that category, were removed. I have also updated the case links to reflect the recently moved cases. Many more cases were also moved yesterday, and that work continues today.

Best of all, not only is there a Overboards Menu, there is the Missing Menu as well on those Overboard By Cruise Line pages. This makes it easy to jump from a cruise line overboard page to a specific category, such as Missing By Name or Deaths.

The links for Overboard By Cruise Line is also on the Main Menu. If you can get to the Main Menu or the Missing Menu you'll find the link. When I get all the search boxes on all the pages, I will be replacing the button on the top navigation bar with a button for Overboards. Then, you can get there from any page on the site.  Take a look at the new category, and note the navigational links on the pages.here