Clery Crime Definitions

Clery Crimes

1. Criminal Offenses

• Criminal homicide/Murder and Non-negligent Manslaughter: The willful (non-negligent) killing of one human being by another.
• Criminal Homicide/Manslaughter by Negligence: The killing of another person through gross negligence.
• Sexual Assault/Offenses: Any sexual act directed against another person, without the consent of the victim, including instances where the victim is incapable of giving consent. This includes attempted sexual assaults. Sexual assault includes rape, fondling, incest, and statutory rape as defined below.
• 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 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 a degree wherein marriage is prohibited by law.
• Statutory rape: Sexual intercourse with a person who is under the statutory age of consent.
• Incest: Sexual intercourse between persons who are related to each other within a degree wherein marriage is prohibited by law.
• Robbery: The taking or attempting to take anything of value from 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. (It is not necessary that injury result from an aggravated assault when a gun, knife, or other weapon is used that could cause serious personal injury if the crime were successfully completed.)
• Burglary: The unlawful entry of a structure to commit a felony or a theft. For reporting purposes this definition includes offenses that are classified by law enforcement agencies as burglary (any degree); unlawful entry with intent to commit a larceny or 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 (e.g., automobile, truck, bus, motorcycle, motor scooters, trail bike, mopeds, all-terrain vehicles, self-propelled motor homes, snowmobiles, golf carts and motorized wheelchairs). This includes all cases where motor vehicles are taken by persons not having lawful access even though the vehicles are later abandoned, including joyriding.
• 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, personal property of another, etc.

2. Hate Crimes

A hate crime is defined as a crime reported to local police agencies or to a campus security authority that manifests evidence that the victim was intentionally selected because of the perpetrator’s bias against the victim.

Clery Crimes include hate crimes.

For the purposes of this section, the categories of bias include the victim’s actual or perceived race, religion, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, ethnicity, national origin and/or disability (as defined below). Any Criminal Offense listed above (except manslaughter by negligence), and the additional crimes of larceny-theft, simple assault, intimidation, or destruction/damage/vandalism of property (as defined below), that manifests such evidence, will be recorded as a hate crime. Middlebury is required to list the category of bias to the extent possible.

Categories of Bias (Definitions)

• Race: A preformed negative attitude towards 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 human kind (e.g., Asians, African Americans, Caucasians, etc.).
• 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.
• Gender: A 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 non-conforming individuals).
• 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.
• National Origin: A preformed negative opinion or attitude toward a group of people based on their actual or perceived country of birth.
• 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.

The following crimes must also be classified as hate crimes if they are motivated by bias. 

• Murder and Non-negligent Manslaughter
• Sexual Assault
• Robbery
• Aggravated Assault
• Burglary
• Motor Vehicle Theft
• Arson
• Larceny-theft
• Simple Assault
• Intimidation and Destruction/Damage/Vandalism of Property

The first seven are defined above. The remaining three are described below:

• Larceny/Theft: 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 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 conduct, but without displaying a weapon or subjecting the victim to 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.

3. VAWA Offenses

Sexual assault (rape, fondling, incest and statutory rape): These are VAWA offenses. For Clery Act reporting purposes these offenses are defined in the Criminal Offenses section above.

• 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 threat of such abuse; and dating violence does not include acts covered under the definition of domestic violence.
   
• 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.
   
• 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. “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.

4. Arrests and Disciplinary Referrals for Violations of Weapons, Drug Abuse and Liquor Laws

• Weapon Law Violations (Carrying, Possessing, etc.): 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. It includes the manufacture, sale, or possession of deadly weapons; carrying deadly weapons, concealed or openly; furnishing deadly weapons to minors; aliens possessing deadly weapons, and attempts to commit any of the above.
• Drug Abuse Violations: 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, but are not limited to: opium or cocaine and their derivatives (morphine, heroin, codeine); marijuana; synthetic narcotics (Demerol, methadone); dangerous non-narcotic drugs (barbiturates, Benzedrine); bath salts and their derivatives; and illegally obtained prescription drugs.
• 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.

Classify as a liquor law violation: the manufacture, sale, transporting, furnishing, possessing of intoxicating liquor (i.e. under the age of 21); maintaining unlawful drinking places; bootlegging; operating a still; furnishing liquor to minor; all attempts to commit any of the aforementioned. Drunkenness and driving under the influence are not included in this definition, nor is possession of alcohol by an individual 21 years of age or older where such possession is in violation of College policy (i.e. at an unregistered party).

• “Arrest” is defined as persons processed by arrest, citation or summons.
• “Referred for disciplinary action” is defined as the referral of any person to any Middlebury official who initiates a disciplinary action of which a record is established and which may result in the imposition of a sanction. The referral may, but does not have to, originate with the police. A “disciplinary action” can be initiated in an informal as well as formal manner. Sanctions can be formal or informal, punitive or educational.