The Jeanne Clery Disclosure of Campus Security Policy and Campus Crime Statistics Act (Clery Act) is a federal law requiring all higher education institutions who participate in the federal student financial aid program to disclose information about crime on campus, in or on off-campus buildings or property owned or controlled by the university, and on public property within or immediately adjacent to the campus.
The Clery Act affects virtually all higher education institutions and is enforced by the U.S. Department of Education. Institutions that fail to comply with the Clery Act can be penalized with large fines and may be suspended from participating in the federal financial aid program.
The majority of the required Clery Act disclosures and information can be found in the Annual Security Report.
Clery daily crime and fire log
One method used to keep the IU community informed is maintaining a daily crime log. Every institution must maintain a daily crime log of criminal incidents and alleged criminal incidents that are reported to the campus police. Crime log entries contain all crimes reported to campus police—not just Clery Act crimes.
The fire log is combined with the crime log and contains information about all reported fires occurring within or on any on-campus student housing facilities.
The Indiana University Police Department and university officials review each report of sexual assault to determine if a crime notice should be issued. Crime notices are issued when there is a serious, or continuing threat pursuant to the federal Clery Act. How long ago the incident occurred is also considered.
When a crime notice is not sent out, the report still goes into the crime log. It should be noted that a crime notice is considered for all Clery Act crimes on property owned or controlled by IU that might represent a serious or continuing threat to the campus community. A different emergency alert is sent out for any incident that represents an immediate threat to the health or safety of the campus community.
The decision of whether to list exact locations or generalize in the crime notices is an established part of the process. The intent is to always protect the individual reporting the assault. If there is information that would identify or jeopardize the reporting individual, the notice will generalize the location to protect them. If exact locations were used regardless of how it affected the person who experienced the behavior and regardless of whether it would reduce the threat, it could contribute to less reporting overall. Each crime alert regarding sexual assault is evaluated by multiple university officials, with communication to the person making the report, and in compliance with federal regulations.
IU has several methods for sending safety notifications, including, but not limited to, the use of IU Notify. Find out more about the different methods for receiving safety information.
To qualify as reportable, a Clery Act crime must have occurred in one of the following locations:
On-Campus: (1) Any building or property owned or controlled by an institution within the core campus (same reasonably contiguous geographic area) and used by the institution in direct support of, or in a manner related to, the institution’s educational purposes, including residence halls; and (2) any building or property that is within or reasonably contiguous to the area identified in paragraph (1), that is owned by the institution but controlled by another person, is frequently used by students, and supports institutional purposes.
Non-Campus: (1) Any building or property owned or controlled by a student organization that is officially recognized by the institution; or (2) any building or property owned or controlled by an institution that is used in direct support of, or in relation to, the institution’s educational purposes, is frequently used by students, and is not within the same reasonably contiguous geographic area of the institution.
Public Property: All public property, including thoroughfares, streets, sidewalks, and parking facilities, that is within the core campus, or immediately adjacent to and accessible from the core campus.
For Clery Act reporting, crimes must be reported according to the FBI’s Uniform Crime Reporting Handbook (UCR). For sex offenses only, the definitions that are used are from the FBI’s National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS).
Murder/Non-Negligent Manslaughter: the willful (non-negligent) killing of one human being by another. NOTE: Deaths caused by negligence, suicides, accidental deaths, and justifiable homicides are excluded. Assaults to murder and attempts to murder should be classified as aggravated assault.
Negligent Manslaughter: the killing of another person through gross negligence.
Robbery: the taking or attempting to take anything from value of 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 usually is accompanied by the use of a weapon or by means likely to produce death or great bodily harm.
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 a 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. (Classify as motor vehicle theft all cases where automobiles are taken by persons not having lawful access, even though the vehicles are later abandoned - including joy riding)
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, or personal property of another kind.
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 consent of the victim.
Fondling: The touching of the private body parts of another person for the purposes of sexual gratification, without the 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: Nonforcible sexual intercourse between persons who are related to each other within the degree wherein marriage is prohibited by law.
Statutory Rape: Nonforcible sexual intercourse with a person who is under the statutory age of consent.
A hate crime is a criminal offense committed against a person or property which is motivated, in whole or in part, by the offender’s bias. Bias is a performed negative opinion or attitude towards a group of persons based on their race, gender, religion, disability, sexual orientation, ethnicity, national origin or gender identity. For Clery purposes, hate crimes include any of the above offenses (minus non-negligent manslaughter) and the addition of the categories below.
Larceny: 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 lacerations, or loss of consciousness.
Vandalism: to willfully or maliciously destroy, injure, disfigure, or deface any public or private property, real or personal, without the consent of the owner or person having custody or control by cutting, tearing, breaking, marking, painting, drawing, covering with filth, or any other such means as may be specified by local law.
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.
The Violence Against Women Reauthorization Act (“VAWA”), which President Obama signed into law on March 7, 2013 imposes new obligations on colleges and universities under its Campus Sexual Violence Act (“SaVE Act”) provision, Section 304. Under this law the additional crime categories will need to be collected:
Domestic Violence: includes misdemeanor and felony crimes of violence committed against a victim when the offender is the spouse of the victim, a former spouse of the victim, or an intimate partner of the victim, or has a child in common with the victim. Domestic violence also includes misdemeanor or felony crimes of violence when the victim is a minor subject to the control of the offender, or is an incapacitated individual subject to the control of the offender.
Dating Violence: violence by a person who has been in a romantic or intimate relationship with the victim. Whether there was such relationship will be gauged by its length, type, and frequency of interaction.
Stalking: a course of conduct directed at a specific person that would cause a reasonable person to fear for her, his, or others’ safety, or to suffer substantial emotional distress. Note: the physical location of the course of conduct or portions of it does not matter.
The third category of crime statistics is the number of arrests and the number of referrals for disciplinary action for the categories listed below. Please note, these statistics are based on violations of the law, and not the university's policies that resulted in the disciplinary referral.
Weapon Law Violations: the violation of laws or ordinances dealing with weapon offenses, regulatory in nature, such as: manufacture, sale, or possession of deadly weapons; carrying deadly weapons, concealed or openly; furnishing deadly weapons to minors; aliens possessing deadly weapons; all attempts to commit any of the aforementioned.
Drug Abuse Violations: violations of state and local laws relating to the unlawful possession, sale, use, growing, manufacturing, and making of narcotic drugs. The relevant substances include: opium or cocaine and their derivatives (morphine, heroin, codeine); marijuana; synthetic narcotics (Demerol, methadones); and dangerous non-narcotic drugs (barbiturates, Benzedrine).
Liquor Law Violations: The violation of laws or ordinance prohibiting: the manufacture, sale, transporting, furnishing, possessing of intoxicating liquor; maintaining unlawful drinking places; bootlegging; operating a still; furnishing liquor to a minor or intemperate person; using a vehicle for illegal transportation of liquor; drinking on a train or public conveyance; all attempts to commit any of the aforementioned. (Drunkenness and driving under the influence are not included in this definition.)
