International Scientific Journals
of Scientific Technical Union of Mechanical Engineering "Industry 4.0"

Maritime crime (piracy and armed robberies against vessels) are challenges to the shipping that have global impact on maritime trade and security. The evolution of this phenomenon is a dynamic process which is characterized by rapid changes both in terms of the number and severity of incidents and in their geographical concentration. This study traces the development of maritime crime over the past 15 years, divided into three 5-year periods. It is performed by analyzing the data collected and published by the International Maritime Bureau, concerning the number, character and location of incidents for the 2008-2022, in order to outline the trends in the contemporary sea piracy and armed robbery.

Maritime piracy and armed robbery against ships are one of the contemporary challenges to the shipping and have global impact on maritime trade and security. Following the boom of Somali piracy in 2009-2011, there has been a downward trend since 2012, resulting mostly from the international counter-piracy efforts, with reaching its lowest value for the last 20 years in 2017. However statistics show doubling the number of attacks in some other regions in the last several years accompanied by increased levels of violence. This report presents a survey of maritime piracy and armed robberies over the last ten years (2008-2017) by regions and countries, as well as by type of attacks on ships, personnel and cargo, with the purpose to outline the trends in contemporary marine crime.