The Clery Act requires institutions to disclose crimes within four major categories: Criminal Offenses, Hate Crimes, Arrests and Referrals, and VAWA Offenses.
CRIMINAL OFFENSES
Criminal Homicide
Murder/Nonnegligent Manslaughter: the willful (nonnegligent) killing of one human being by another. This offense does not include traffic fatalities, suicides, accidental deaths, or justifiable homicide as defined by law.
Manslaughter by Negligence: the killing of another person through gross negligence
Sexual Assault (Sex Offenses)
Rape: 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, including instances where the victim is incapable of giving consent because of their age or because of their temporary or permanent mental incapacity.
Fondling: the touching of the private body parts of another person for the purpose of sexual gratification without the consent of the victim, including instances where the victim is incapable of giving consent because of their age or because of their temporary or permanent mental incapacity.
Incest: nonforcible sexual intercourse between persons who are related to each other within the degrees wherein marriage is prohibited by law.
Statutory Rape: nonforcible sexual intercourse with a person who is under the statutory age of consent.
Other Criminal 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 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 usually is accompanied by the use of a weapon or means likely to produce death or great bodily harm. It is not necessary that injury result from an aggravated assault when a gun, knife, or other weapon is used which could and probably would result in a serious potential injury if the crime were completed.
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 the intent to commit a larceny; house-breaking; safecracking; and all attempts to commit any of the aforementioned.
Motor Vehicle Theft: the theft or attempted theft of a motor vehicle including incidents where a vehicle is taken by a person not having lawful access even though the vehicle is later abandoned (i.e., “joyriding”).
Arson: any willful or malicious burning or attempt to burn, with or without intent to defraud, a dwelling house, public building, motor vehicle or aircraft, personal property of another, etc. Arson includes incidents where an individual willfully or maliciously burns their own property. Accidental fires such as a cooking fire are not included in this offense.
HATE CRIMES
Any incidents of larceny (theft), simple assault, intimidation, destruction/damage/vandalism of property, and other Clery Act crimes that are motivated in whole or in part by an offender’s bias toward race, ethnicity, national origin, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, religion, and/or disability.
Larceny (Theft): the unlawful taking, carrying, leading, or riding away of property from the possession or constructive possession of another.
Simple Assault: the 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: is 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: 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.
ARRESTS and REFERRALS for DISCIPLINARY ACTION
Under the Clery Act institutions must also report arrests and referrals for disciplinary action for liquor law violations, drug law violations, and weapons law violations.
Liquor Law Violations: violation of state or local laws or ordinances prohibiting the manufacture, sale, purchase, transportation, possession, or use of alcoholic beverages.
Drug Law Violations: violation of state or local laws or ordinances 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.
Weapons Law Violations: 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.
VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN ACT (VAWA) OFFENSES
It is a requirement of the Clery Act to report the following VAWA 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 determined 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 persons involved in the relationship.
- 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;
- A person with whom the victim shares a child in common;
- A person who is cohabitating with, or has cohabitated with, the victim as a spouse or intimate partner;
- A person similarly situated to a spouse of the victim under the domestic or family violence laws of the jurisdiction in which the crime of violence occurred; or
- Any other person against an adult or youth victim who is protected from that person’s acts under the domestic or family violence laws of the jurisdiction in which the crime of violence occurred.
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.
- Course of conduct means two or more acts, including but not limited to, acts in which the stalker directly, indirectly, or through third parties, by any action, method, device, or means follows, monitors, observes, surveils, threatens, or communicates to or about a person, or interferes with a person’s property.
- Reasonable person means a reasonable person under similar circumstances and with similar identities to the victim.
- Substantial emotional distress means significant mental suffering or anguish that may, but does not necessarily, require medical or other professional treatment or counseling.
STOP CAMPUS HAZING ACT
In December of 2024, the federal government passed the Stop Campus Hazing Act which amended the Clery Act to require TCU to begin collecting reports of hazing for publication in the 2026 ASFSR. The amendment also required the publication of a hazing transparency report as a standalone publication along with policy-related disclosures in the ASFSR. The amendment defined hazing as:
Any intentional, knowing, or reckless act committed by a person (whether individually or in concert with other persons) against another person or persons regardless of the willingness of such other person or persons to participate, that—
(I) is committed in the course of an initiation into, an affiliation with, or the maintenance of membership in, a student organization; and
(II) causes or creates a risk, above the reasonable risk encountered in the course of participation in the institution of higher education or the organization (such as the physical preparation necessary for participation in an athletic team), of physical or psychological injury including—
aa. whipping, beating, striking, electronic shocking, placing of a harmful substance on someone’s body, or similar activity;
bb. causing, coercing, or otherwise inducing sleep deprivation, exposure to the elements, confinement in a small space, extreme calisthenics, or other similar activity;
cc. causing, coercing, or otherwise inducing another person to consume food, liquid, alcohol, drugs, or other substances;
dd. causing, coercing, or otherwise inducing another person to perform sexual acts;
ee. any activity that places another person in reasonable fear of bodily harm through the use of threatening words or conduct;
ff. activity against another person that includes a criminal violation of local, State, Tribal, or Federal law; and
gg. any activity that induces, causes, or requires another person to perform a duty or task that involves a criminal violation of local, State, Tribal, or Federal law.”
