Clery Safety Crime Categories
The Clery Safety Act focuses on specific crimes included in the Annual Security and Fire Safety Report (ASFSR). These categories are based on definitions from the FBI’s Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) system - NIBRS User Manual to provide consistent, comparable data across institutions. Only incidents that meet these definitions and occur within the university’s Clery Safety geography are included on the ASFSR.
Why Only These Crimes?
The Clery Safety Act focuses on crimes that pose a significant threat to campus safety. While the ASFSR includes only the Clery Safety defined crimes, App State also maintains a Daily Crime Log. This log includes all criminal incidents reported to the App State Police, regardless of whether they meet Clery definitions and provides timely updates to the campus community.
Any person who is informed of a crime or safety concern should document the information and submit a report to the App State Police as soon as possible. If you are unsure whether an incident qualifies as a Clery Safety crime, submitting a report ensures that it can be reviewed appropriately.
NEW: Stop Campus Hazing Act: New Hazing Reporting Requirements
The Stop Campus Hazing Act introduces amendments to the Clery Safety Act, requiring universities to include hazing as a reportable crime in the Annual Security and Fire Safety Report. The first crime statistics for hazing will appear in the 2026 Annual Security and Fire Safety Report.
Definition of Hazing
Hazing, regardless of an individual's willingness to participate, is any intentional, knowing or reckless act committed by one person or a group against another individual in connection with initiation, admission or continued membership in a student organization or group that:
- Causes or creates a risk (above the reasonable risk encountered in the course of participation in the institution or the student organization) of physical or psychological injury. It includes activities such as:
- Whipping, beating, striking, electronic shocking, placing of a harmful substance on someone's body or similar activity;
- Causing, coercing, or otherwise inducing sleep deprivation, exposure to the elements, confinement in a small space, extreme calisthenics or other similar activity;
- Causing, coercing, or otherwise inducing another person to consume food, liquid, alcohol, drugs or other substances;
- Causing, coercing, or otherwise inducing another person to perform sexual acts;
- Any activity that places another person in reasonable fear of bodily harm through the use of threatening words or conduct;
- Any activity against another person that includes a criminal violation of local, State, Tribal or Federal law; and
- 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.
Definition of a Student Organization
Under the Stop Campus Hazing Act, a student organization includes any group of two or more students participating in a recognized or unrecognized university-affiliated activity. This may include but is not limited to:
- Clubs, societies and student associations
- Fraternities and sororities
- Athletic teams (varsity, junior varsity and club sports)
- Marching band
- ROTC and affiliated clubs
- Student government
Primary Criminal Offenses
Criminal Homicide:
- Murder and Nonnegligent Manslaughter - The willful (nonnegligent) killing of one human being by another.
- Negligent Manslaughter - The killing of another person through gross negligence.
Sexual Assault:
- 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, or by a sex-related object. This definition also includes instance in which the victim is incapable of giving consent because of temporary or permanent mental or physical incapacity (include due to the influence of drugs or alcohol) or because of age. Physical resistance is not required on the part of the victim to demonstrate lack of consent.
- 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 unable to give consent because of his/her age or because of his/her temporary or permanent mental or physical 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.
Robbery- The taking of anything of value from the control, custody, or care of another person by force or threat of force and/or by putting the victim in fear of immediate harm.
Aggravated Assault - An unlawful attack by one person upon another wherein the offender uses a dangerous weapon or displays it in a threatening manner or the victim suffers obvious severe or aggravated bodily injury, or where there was a risk for serious injury/intent to seriously injure.
Burglary - The unlawful entry into a building or some other structure to commit a felony or a theft.
Motor Vehicle Theft - The theft of a motor vehicle.
Arson - To unlawfully and intentionally damage or attempt to damage any real or personal property of another person or entity by fire or incendiary device.
Hate Crimes
Crime offenses motivated by bias against a person's race, religion, sexual orientation, gender, ethnicity, national origin, disability or gender identity of any of the above-mentioned offenses, and any incidents of:
Larceny/Theft Offenses - The unlawful taking, carrying, leading, or riding away of property from the possession or constructive possession of another person.
Simple Assault - An unlawful physical attack by one person upon another where neither the offender displays a dangerous 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 harm through the use of threatening words and/or other conduct without displaying a dangerous weapon or subjecting the victim to an actual physical attack. (This offense includes stalking. In addition, the offender can make threats in person, over the telephone, or in writing.)
Destruction/Damage/Vandalism of Property (except Arson) - To willfully or maliciously destroy, damage, deface, or otherwise injure any public or private property without the consent of the owner or the person having custody or control of it.
Arrests & Referrals
These criminal offenses—alcohol, drug, and weapons violations—when they result in an arrest or a referral to a campus disciplinary authority. They are counted because they involve a legal or institutional response to a violation of criminal law, not just a violation of campus policy.
Weapons Law Violations - transportation, possession, concealment, or use of firearms, cutting instruments, explosives, incendiary devices, or other deadly weapons.
Drug/ Narcotic Violations - The unlawful possession, distribution, sale, purchase, use, transportation, importation, cultivation and/or manufacturing of any controlled drug or narcotic substance and the equipment or devices utilized in their preparation and/or use.
Liquor Law Violations - The unlawful possession, sale, transportation, manufacturing, or furnishing of alcohol to a minor (under 21 years) or maintaining an unlawful drinking place.
Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) Offenses
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 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.
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 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 this definition:
- 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 the persons involved in the relationship.
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.
- For the purposes of this definition:
- 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.
- For the purposes of this definition: