Clery Act Crimes

Criminal Homicide:

• Murder and Non-negligent Manslaughter:  The willful (non-negligent) killing of one human being by another. Included in Murder and Non-negligent Manslaughter are death caused by injuries received in a fight, argument, quarrel, assault, or the commission of a crime.
• Manslaughter by Negligence:  The killing of another person through gross negligence. Included in Manslaughter by Negligence is any death caused by gross negligence of another.  In other words, it is something that a reasonable and prudent person would not do.

Sexual Assault (Sex Offenses): Any sexual act directed against another person, without consent of the victim, including instances where the victim is incapable of giving consent.  This includes attempts.

• Rape:  The penetration, no matter how slight, of the vagina or anus with any body part or object, or oral penetration by a sex organ of another person, without the consent of the victim.  This offense includes the rape of both males and females.
• Fondling:  The touching of the private parts of another person for the purpose of sexual gratification, without consent of the victim, including instances where the victim is incapable of giving consent because of his/her age or because of his/her temporary or permanent mental incapacity.
• Incest:  Sexual intercourse between persons who are related to each other within degrees wherein marriage is prohibited by law.
• Statutory Rape:  Sexual intercourse with a person who is under the statutory age of consent.  (In Kentucky, the age of consent is sixteen (16) years old.)

Other Offenses:

• Robbery:  The taking or attempting to take anything of value from the care, custody or control of a person or persons by force or threat of force or violence and/or by putting the victim in fear.
• Aggravated Assault:  An unlawful attack by one person upon another for the purpose of inflicting severe or aggravated bodily injury.  This type of assault is usually accompanied by the use of a weapon or by means likely to produce death or great bodily harm.  (Simple assaults are excluded.)
• Burglary:  The unlawful entry of a structure to commit a felony or a theft.  For reporting purposes, this definition includes unlawful entry with intent to commit a larceny or felony; breaking and entering with intent to commit a larceny; housebreaking; safecracking; and all attempts to commit any of the aforementioned.
• Motor Vehicle Theft:  The theft or attempted theft of a motor vehicle.  (This does not include thefts from motor vehicles.)  This includes all cases where automobiles are taken by persons not having lawful access even though the vehicles are later abandoned – including joyriding.
• Arson:  Any willful or malicious burning or attempt to burn, with or without the intent to defraud, a dwelling house, public building, motor vehicle or aircraft, personal property of another, etc.

A Hate Crime is any criminal offense (as listed above) that manifests evidence that the victim was intentionally selected because of the perpetrator’s bias against the victim.  Bias is a preformed negative opinion or attitude toward a group of persons based on their race, gender, religion, disability, sexual orientation, or ethnicity/national origin – or the offender’s perception thereof.

The Clery Act Categories of Bias:

• Race:  A preformed negative attitude toward a group of persons who possess common physical characteristics (e.g., color of skin, eyes, and/or hair; facial features, etc.) genetically transmitted by descent and heredity which distinguish them as a distinct division of humankind (e.g., Asians, blacks or African Americans, whites).
• Religion:  A preformed negative opinion or attitude toward a group of persons who share the same religious beliefs regarding the origin and purpose of the universe and the existence or nonexistence of a supreme being (e.g., Catholics, Jews, Protestants, atheists).
• Sexual Orientation:  A preformed negative opinion or attitude toward a group of persons based on their actual or perceived sexual orientation.  Sexual Orientation is the term for a person’s physical, romantic, and/or emotional attraction to members of the same and/or opposite sex, including lesbian, gay, bisexual, and heterosexual (straight) individuals.
• Gender:  A preformed negative opinion or attitude toward a person or group of persons based on their actual or perceived gender (e.g., male or female).
• Gender Identity:  A preformed negative opinion or attitude toward a person or group of persons based on their actual or perceived gender identity (e.g., bias against transgender or gender non-conforming individuals).
• Ethnicity:  A preformed negative opinion or attitude toward a group of people whose members identify with each other, through a common heritage, often consisting of a common language, common culture (often including a shared religion) and/or ideology that stress a common ancestry.
• National Origin:  A preformed negative opinion or attitude toward a group of people based on their actual or perceived country of birth.
• Disability:  A preformed negative opinion or attitude toward a group of persons based on their physical or mental impairments, whether such disability is temporary or permanent, congenital or acquired by heredity, accident, injury, advanced age or illness.

For Clery Act purposes, Hate Crimes include any of the criminal offenses listed above and the offenses below that are motivated by bias:

• Larceny-Theft:  The unlawful taking, carrying, leading, or riding away of property from the possession or constructive possession of another.  (Larceny and theft mean the same thing in the UCR.)  Constructive possession is the condition in which a person does not have physical custody or possession but is in a position to exercise dominion or control over a thing.
• Simple Assault:  An unlawful physical attack by one person upon another where neither the offender displays a weapon, nor the victim suffers obvious severe or aggravated bodily injury involving apparent broken bones, loss of teeth, possible internal injury, severe laceration, or loss of consciousness.
• Intimidation:  To unlawfully place another person in reasonable fear of bodily harm through the use of threatening words and/or other conduct, but without displaying a weapon or subjecting the victim to actual physical attack.
• Destruction/damage/Vandalism of Property:  To willfully or maliciously destroy, damage, deface or otherwise injure real or personal property without the consent of the owner or the person having custody or control of it.

The Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) includes amendments to the Clery Act and requires institutions to disclose statistics related to Dating Violence, Domestic Violence, Sexual Assault, and Stalking.  Sexual Assault is included by the FBI as a Criminal Offense and is discussed above as part of Criminal Offenses. 

• Dating Violence:  Violence committed by a person who is or has been in a social relationship of a romantic or intimate nature with the victim.  The existence of such a relationship shall be based on the reporting party’s statement and with consideration of the length of the relationship, the type of relationship, and the frequency of interaction between the persons involved in the relationship.  For purposes of this definition, dating violence includes, but is not limited to, sexual or physical abuse or the threat of such abuse.  Dating violence does not include acts covered under the definition of domestic violence.
• Domestic Violence:  A felony or misdemeanor crime of violence committed by a current or former spouse or intimate partner of the victim; by a person with whom the victim shares a child in common; by a person who is cohabitating with or has cohabitated with the victim as a spouse or intimate partner; by a person similarly situated to a spouse of the victim under the domestic or family violence law of the jurisdiction in which the crime of violence occurred; or by any other person against an adult or youth victim who is protected from the person’s acts under the domestic or family violence laws of the jurisdiction in which the crime of violence occurred.
  • To categorize an incident as Domestic Violence, the relationship between the perpetrator and the victim must be more than just two people living together as roommates.  The people cohabitating must be current or former spouses or have an intimate relationship.
• Stalking:  Engaging in a course of conduct directed at a specific person that would cause a reasonable person to fear for the person’s safety or the safety of others; or suffer substantial emotional distress.

The Clery Act requires reporting of arrests and referrals for disciplinary actions for the following violations:

• Weapons (carrying, possessing, etc.):  The violation of laws or ordinances prohibiting the manufacture, sale, purchase, transportation, possession, concealment, or use of firearms, cutting instruments, explosives, incendiary devices or other deadly weapons.  This classification also encompasses weapons offenses that are regulatory in nature.
• Drug Abuse Violations:  The violation of laws prohibiting the production, distribution and/or use of certain controlled substances and the equipment or devices utilized in their preparation and/or use.  The unlawful cultivation, manufacture, distribution, sale, purchase, use, possession, transportation or importation of any controlled drug or narcotic substance.  Arrests for violations of state and local laws, specifically those relating to the unlawful possession, sale, use, growing, manufacturing, and making of narcotic drugs.
• Liquor Law Violations:  The violation of state or local laws or ordinances prohibiting: the manufacture, sale, purchase, transportation, possession, or use of alcoholic beverages, not including driving under the influence and drunkenness.