Crime Reporting FAQ

In 1986 Jeanne Clery, a freshman at Pennsylvania's Lehigh University, was murdered and sexually assaulted in her campus residence hall room by another student she didn't know. Her school hadn't informed students about 38 violent crimes on campus in the three years preceding her murder. Clery's parents, Connie and Howard, led the crusade to enact the original Campus Security Act. Congress formally named the law in memory of Clery in 1998.

All institutional officials with significant responsibility for campus and student activities have reporting obligations under the Clery Act. Only professional mental health and pastoral counselors are exempt from reporting. For example, if you are a coach, a resident assistant/head resident/area coordinator, a faculty advisor for a student group, or an instructor, you have a responsibility to comply with reporting requirements.

If you are not sure if you are considered a Campus Security Authority (CSA), contact Captain Beth Simonds at ext. 8722.

There are three groups of incidents which are included on the CCRA reports. The first group is:

• Murder/Non-Negligent Manslaughter
• Negligent Manslaughter
• Forcible Sex Offenses
• Non-Forcible Sex Offenses
• Robbery
• Aggravated Assault
• Burglary
• Arson
• Motor Vehicle Theft

 Definitions of these crimes are available on the annual report.

The second group of statistics is assembled based on hate crime information for the crimes listed above, with Simple Assaults added to the reportable incidents. If there is physical injury to a victim, and it is determined that the injury was inflicted because of one of the categories listed below, the incident is also reported as a hate crime. Hate-crime categories include:

• Race
• Gender
• Religion
• Sexual Orientation
• Ethnicity
• Disability

 Finally, arrests and referrals for the following violations must be reported:

• Liquor Law Violations
• Drug Law Violations
• Weapons Law Violations

These three violations must be a violation of the Code of Virginia. University Policy violations are not included in these statistics. However, criminal violations must be included if they are referred to a judicial body (i.e. Honor Council) for adjudication.

Incidents may be reported several ways:

• Report the incident to the University Police by calling 804-289-8715.
• Use the Silent Witness Submission Form.

Information we need to track the statistics include:

• Incident date
• Incident time
• Incident location (exact location is particularly helpful)
• Short description of incident which occurred

Including this information will help us ensure we are properly reporting the statistic and that a police report has already been made. This reduces double counting of statistics.