Clery Reporting Crime Definitions

The Clery Act has four categories for reportable crimes and the following definitions and statistics are reported in accordance with those guidelines.

Criminal Offenses

Murder/Non-Negligent Manslaughter

The willing (non-negligent) killing of one human by another. NOTE: deaths caused by negligence, attempts to kill, assaults to kill, suicides, accidental deaths, and justifiable homicides are excluded.

Manslaughter By Negligence

The killing of another person through gross negligence.

Sex Offenses

Any sexual act directed against another person, without the Consent of the victim, including instances where the victim is incapable of giving Consent. An offense that meets the definition of rape, fondling, incest, or statutory rape as used in the FBI's UCR program.

• 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.
• Fondling: The touching of the private 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 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 the degrees wherein marriage is prohibited by law.
• Statutory Rape: Sexual intercourse with a person who is under the statutory age of Consent.

Robbery

The taking, or attempting to take, anything of value from the care, custody or control of a person or persons by force, 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. It is not necessary that injury result from an aggravated assault when a gun, knife or other weapon is used which could, or 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 a felony; breaking and entering with the intent to commit a larceny; housebreaking, safe-cracking; and all attempts to commit any of the aforementioned.

Motor Vehicle Theft

The theft or attempted theft of a motor vehicle. (Motor vehicle theft includes all cases where automobiles are taken by persons not having lawful access, even though the vehicles are later abandoned - including joy riding.)

Arson

The 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.

Violence Against Women Act (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 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 the 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.
  • For the purposes of complying with the requirements of this section and § 668.41, any incident meeting this definition is considered a crime for the purposes of Clery Act reporting.

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 cohabiting with, or has cohabited 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 laws of the jurisdiction in which the crime of violence occurred
• By 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
• Suffer substantial emotional distress
• For the purposes of this definition:
  • Course of conduct means two or more acts, including, but not limited to, acts 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

Arrest And Disciplinary Referral Definitions

Arrest

Defined as persons processed by arrest, citation or summons.

Discilinary Referral

Defined as the referral of any person to any official who initiates a disciplinary action of which a record is established, and which may result in the imposition of a sanction.

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.

Drug Abuse Violation

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.

The relevant substances include opium or cocaine and their derivatives (morphine, heroin, codeine); marijuana; synthetic narcotics-manufactured narcotics that can cause true addiction (Demerol, methadone); and dangerous non-narcotic drugs (barbiturates, Benzedrine).

Weapon 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. This classification encompasses weapons offenses that are regulatory in nature.

Hate Crimes

In addition to the criminal offenses listed above, the following acts are also reportable as Hate Crimes under the Clery Act when the evidence suggests the victim was intentionally selected because of the victim's actual or perceived race, religion, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, ethnicity, national origin, or disability. The Clery Act only counts the categories of bias for hate crimes that are listed below.

Larceny-Theft

The unlawful taking, carrying, leading or riding away of property from the possession or constructive possession of another.

• 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 an 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.

Hate Crime Bias Categories

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

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 nonconforming individuals. Gender non-conforming describes a person who does not conform to the gender-based expectations of society, e.g., a woman dressed in traditionally male clothing or a man wearing makeup. A gender non-conforming person may or may not be a lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender person but may be perceived as such.

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 stresses common ancestry. The concept of ethnicity differs from the closely related term "race" in that "race" refers to a grouping based mostly upon biological criteria, while "ethnicity" also encompasses additional cultural factors.

National Origin

a preformed negative opinion or attitude toward a group of people based on their actual or perceived country of birth. This bias may be against people that have a name or accent associated with a national origin group, participate in certain customs associated with a national origin group, or because they are married to or associate with people of a certain national origin.

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.

Hierarchy Rule

When counting multiple offenses, Texas Tech is required to use the FBI's UCR Hierarchy Rule. Under this rule, when more than one criminal offense was committed during a single incident, Texas Tech must only count the most serious offense. A single incident means that the offenses were committed at the same time and place.

Beginning with the most serious offense, the hierarchy for reporting Clery offenses is:

1. Murder and Non-negligent Manslaughter
2. Manslaughter by Negligence
3. Sexual Assault
4. Robbery
5. Aggravated Assault
6. Burglary
7. Motor Vehicle Theft

The crimes of Arson, Sexual Assault, Dating Violence, Domestic Violence, Stalking, and Hate Crimes are not governed by the Hierarchy Rule, and statistics for these incidents are reported in these categories in addition to any other crime category covered under the Hierarchy Rule, if applicable. The crime statistics also reflect no Hierarchy Rule for drug, liquor and weapon law violations, where the institution chooses the most severe infraction to count.

Unfounded Crimes

Under the reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Reauthorization Act regulations, an institution may withhold or subsequently remove a reported crime from its crime statistics in the situation where sworn or commissioned law enforcement personnel have fully investigated the reported crime and, based on the results of this full investigation and evidence, have made a formal determination that the crime report is false or baseless and therefore unfounded. Only sworn or commissioned law enforcement personnel may "unfound" a crime report