Overview

The Jeanne Clery Disclosure of Campus Security Policy and Campus Crime Statistics Act or Clery Act was created in 1990, after a tragic incident occurred at small university in Pennsylvania. In 1986, Jeanne Clery was a freshman student at Lehigh University and was raped and murdered by fellow student Josoph Henry while in her dorm room.

Following the incident, Congress passed the Clery Act, which requires that all postsecondary institutions participating in federal student financial assistance programs disclose campus crime statistics and other security information to students and the public. The VAWA amendments added requirements that institutions disclose statistics, policies and programs related to dating violence, domestic violence, sexual assault and stalking, among other changes. Additionally, the Clery Act requires institutions to develop and implement specific campus safety and crime prevention policies and procedures.

Clery Crime Definitions

Criminal Offenses are defined as outlined by the U.S. Department of Justice's National Incident-Based Reporting System. For the purposes of complying with the requirements of 34 C.F.R 668.41, an incident meeting these definitions is considered a crime for the purpose of Clery Act reporting.

1. Murder and Non-Negligent Manslaughter: The willful (non-negligent) killing of one human being by another. Any death caused by injuries received in a fight, argument, quarrel, assault or commission of a crime is classified as murder and non-negligent manslaughter.
2. Manslaughter by Negligence: The killing of another person through gross negligence. Deaths of persons due to their own negligence, accidental deaths not resulting from gross negligence and traffic fatalities are not included in this category.
3. Sexual Assault: An offense that meets the definition of rape, fondling, incest or statutory rape as used in the FBI’s Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) program. Per the National Incident-Based Reporting System User Manual from the FBI UCR Program, a sex offense is “any sexual act directed against another person, without the consent of the victim, including instances where the victim is incapable of giving consent.”
   • 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 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 or physical incapacity. Because there is no penetration in fondling, this offense will not convert to the SRS as rape.
   • 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.
4. Robbery: The taking, or attempted taking, of anything of value from one person by another, in which the offender uses force or the threat of violence.
5. 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.
6. Burglary: The unlawful entry into a building or other structure with the intent to commit a felony or a theft.
7. Motor-Vehicle Theft: The theft or attempted theft of a motor vehicle, including automobiles, trucks, motorcycles and mopeds.
8. 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, personal property of another, etc.
9. Domestic Violence: Includes felony or misdemeanor crimes of violence committed by a current or former spouse 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 laws 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 that person's acts under the domestic or family violence laws of the jurisdiction in which the crime of violence occurred.
10. 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; and, where the existence of such a relationship shall be determined by the victim with consideration of the following factors: (1) the length of the relationship, (2) the type of relationship, (3) the frequency of the interaction between the persons involved in the relationship.
11. 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 to suffer substantial emotional distress. 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.
12. Liquor-Law Violations: The violation of laws or ordinances prohibiting: the manufacture, sale, transporting, furnishing or possessing of intoxicating liquor; maintaining unlawful drinking places; bootlegging; operating a still; furnishing liquor to a minor or intemperate person; underage possession; using a vehicle for illegal transportation of liquor; drinking on a train or public conveyance; and all attempts to commit any of the aforementioned offenses.
    • Drunkenness and driving under the influence are not included in this definition.
13. Drug-Law 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, methadone); and dangerous non-narcotic drugs (barbiturates, Benzedrine).
14. Weapons-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; and all attempts to commit any of the aforementioned offenses.
15. Hate Crimes: A criminal offense committed against a person or property that is motivated, in whole or in part, by the offender’s bias. Bias is a preformed negative opinion or attitude toward a group of persons based on their race, gender, religion, national origin, sexual orientation, gender identity, ethnicity or disability. For Clery Reporting purposes, hate crimes include any of the following offenses that are motivated by bias:
    • Murder and Non-negligent manslaughter
    • Sex offense
    • Robbery
    • Aggravated assault
    • Burglary
    • Motor vehicle theft
    • Arson

The following four (4) offenses on their own are not Clery Reportable offenses but will be counted if it is also a hate crime:

1. Larceny: The unlawful taking, carrying, leading or riding away of property from the possession or constructive possession of another.
2. 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.
3. 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.
4. 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.

Clery Geography Maps

Morgantown

Keyser

Beckley

Note: These maps are for general background and reflect the University’s Clery Geography from Feb. 18, 2022, to June 15, 2022. They may not accurately reflect property for prior years or subsequent to June 15, 2022. Therefore, if you have any questions related to the map, please contact the Clery Act Coordinator at CleryCompliance@mail.wvu.edu.

1. On-Campus: Defined as “any building or property owned or controlled by an institution of higher education within the same reasonably contiguous geographic area of the institution and used by the institution in direct support of, or in a manner related to, the institution’s educational purposes, including student halls; and property within the same reasonably contiguous geographic area of the institution that is owned by the institution but controlled by another person, is used by students, and supports institutional purposes (such as a food or other retail vendor).”
2. On-Campus Student Housing (Subset of On-Campus): Defined as “any student housing facility that is owned or controlled by the institution or is located on property that is owned or controlled by the institution, and is within the reasonably contiguous geographic area that makes up campus.”
3. Noncampus Building or Property: Defined as “any building or property owned or controlled by a student organization recognized by the institution; and any building or property (other than a branch campus) owned or controlled by an institution of higher education that is used in direct support of, or in relation to, the institution’s educational purposes, is used by students, and is not within the same reasonably contiguous geographic area of the institution.” Note: Fraternity- and sorority-owned chapter houses fall into this category as do off-campus locations owned or controlled by West Virginia University.
4. Public Property: Defined as “all public property that is within the same reasonably contiguous geographic area of the institution, such as a sidewalk, a street, other thoroughfare, or parking facility, and is adjacent to a facility owned or controlled by the institution if the facility is used by the institution in direct support of, or in a manner related to the institution’s educational purposes."
5. Separate Campus: Defined as "a separate location that the institution owns or controls, is not reasonably geographically contiguous with the main campus, has an organized program of study, and there is at least one person on site acting in an administrative capacity." Note: WVU Tech (Beckley), WVU Potomac State College (Keyser), WVU Health Sciences – Charleston and WVU Health Sciences – Eastern Division fall into this category.