Criminal offenses can also be referred to as Primary Crimes.  The first two crimes listed below fall under the broader category of Criminal Homicide.

• Murder and Non-negligent Manslaughter
  • Definition: The willful (non-negligent) killing of one human being by another.
  • Example: Two groups of students get into an argument in a campus parking lot. Jim punches Joe and causes him to hit his head on a concrete sidewalk, inflicting severe head trauma. Two days later, Joe dies.
• Manslaughter by Negligence
  • Definition: The killing of another person through gross negligence.
  • Example: Two students, Jim and Mike, are handling a gun at an on-campus fraternity house owned by the institution, and Jim “jokingly” points the gun at Mike. Jim fires the gun and Mike is killed. Jim claims no knowledge of the gun being loaded.
• Aggravated Assault
  • Definition: An unlawful attack by one person upon another for the purpose of inflicting severe or aggravated bodily injury. This type of assault is typically accompanied by the use of a weapon or by means likely to produce death or great bodily harm. This excludes simple assault, which is discussed further down.
  • Example: Sarah and Anne have a heated argument at a party at a sorority house owned by a recognized sorority located a mile from the campus. Sarah grabs a lacrosse stick and repeatedly beats Anne across the back with it, breaking several ribs.
• Arson
  • Definition: 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. Only fires determined through investigation to have been willfully or maliciously set are classified as arsons. Arson is the only Clery Act offense that must be investigated before it can be disclosed.
  • Example: A student is killed by what an investigation determines was a deliberately set fire in his campus residence hall room.
• Burglary
  • Definition: The unlawful entry of a structure to commit a felony or a theft; includes forcible entry.
  • Example:  A room in an on-campus dormitory is broken into and a laptop is stolen by a student living down the hall.
• Robbery
  • Definition: 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 putting the victim in fear.
  • Example: Two students returning to campus from a night at a local bar are approached by three armed men on a city sidewalk outside their residence hall and told to hand over their wallets. The students comply and the three armed men leave without harming the students.
• Motor Vehicle Theft
  • Definition: The theft or attempted theft of a motor vehicle, which is defined as self-propelled and runs on the surface and not on rails. Motorboats, construction equipment, airplanes and farming equipment are specifically excluded from this category.
  • Example: A faculty member’s car is reported stolen from a campus parking garage and is later recovered a block off campus.

The Clery Act includes four defined sex offenses for which crime statistics must be collected on Clery geography.

• Rape
  • Definition: 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.
  • Example: A female student reports to the campus police that she was raped in her car in a parking lot on her school’s campus by students from another college.
• Fondling
  • Definition: 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 and/or because of his/her temporary or permanent mental incapacity.
  • Example: A male student reports that another male student fondled him in a campus building while telling him that he was glad they could finally be alone.
• Statutory rape
  • Definition: Non-forcible sexual intercourse with a person who is under the statutory age of consent.
  • Example: A 21-year-old student has sex with a 15-year-old juvenile in the student’s on-campus apartment. There is no use of force or threat of force.
• Incest
  • Definition: Non-forcible sexual intercourse between persons who are related to each other within the degrees wherein marriage is prohibited by law.
  • Example: A 20-year-old student has sex with her 25-year-old brother in her on-campus apartment.

The Clery Act requires institutions to collect statistics for violations of state law and/or ordinances for drug, alcohol, and weapons violations. These violations can result in an arrest or disciplinary action.

• Liquor Law Violations
  • Definition: The violation of laws or ordinances prohibiting: the manufacture, sale, transporting, furnishing, possessing , etc., 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. Drunkenness and driving under the influence are not included.
  • Example: In an on-campus student housing facility room, three underage students and a non-student are found drinking alcohol in violation of state law.
• Weapons Possession
  • Definition: 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.
  • Example: A student is cited for having a firearm in his or her residence hall room in violation of state law.
• Drug Abuse Violations
  • Definition: 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).
  • Example: Two non-students are arrested during an on-campus football game for possession of cocaine.

A hate crime is a criminal offense that manifests evidence that the victim was intentionally selected because of the perpetrator’s bias against the victim.

Although there are many possible categories of bias, under the Clery Act, the eight categories that are required to be reported as hate crimes include race, religion, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, ethnicity, national origin and disability.

The Clery Act requires institutions collect crime statistics for hate crimes associated with either the commission of a primary crime or the lesser offenses of larceny-theft, simple assault, intimidation, destruction of or vandalism of a building or property. The aforementioned lesser offenses are included in Clery Act statistics only if they are hate crimes.

• Larceny-theft
  • Definition: The unlawful taking, carrying, leading or riding away of property from the possession or constructive possession of another.
  • Example: A student with known anti-gay sentiments steals a number of books by LGBTQ authors from a campus library exhibit. He leaves a note on the exhibit table that reads, “Gay and lesbian books don’t belong in our library.” When he is caught leaving the library with a large bag of books, he starts shouting that LGBTQ students have been getting too much attention on campus and he was tired of it.
• Simple Assault
  • Definition: An unlawful physical attack by one person on another when 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.
  • Example: A white student causes a disturbance in an on-campus classroom during a discussion on race relations. The student begins shouting racial epithets while pointing at black students. The instructor calls campus security for assistance. A white security officer and a black security officer arrive. When the black officer tries to subdue the student, the student starts shoving the officer and shouting racial epithets at him.
• Intimidation 
  • Definition: 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 an actual attack. This includes cyber-intimidation if the victim is threatened on Clery geography.
  • Example: During finals week, a gay faculty member gets a series of phone calls in his non-campus office. When he answers, the caller says that she hates gay people and then hangs up. On the third night, the caller says that the faculty member had better be careful because something terrible was about to happen to gay people at the school. The faculty member is afraid and calls the local police to report the threat.
• Destruction, Damage or Vandalism of Property
  • Definition: 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 the property.
  • Example: The office of the Arab-American Student Center on the third floor of the campus student union contains both Arabic and English writing on the outside of the door. One night, the office is vandalized with anti-Arab threats and disparaging anti-Arab messages.

On March 7, 2013, the Violence Against Women Reauthorization Act of 2013 (VAWA) was signed into law. VAWA includes amendments to the Clery Act, requiring institutions to disclose statistics, policies and programs related to dating violence, domestic violence, sexual assault and stalking, among other changes.

• Domestic Violence
  • Definition: 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.
  • Example: A student’s wife is waiting for her husband outside of his on-campus classroom building. She attacks her husband with a knife when he exits the building.
• Dating Violence
  • Definition: 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 with consideration of the length of the relationship, the type of relationship and the frequency of interaction between the persons involved in the relationship.
  • Example: A male student cuts his ex-girlfriend with a knife during an altercation in an on-campus dining hall.
• Stalking
  • Definition: Engaging in a course of conduct directed at a specific person that would cause a reasonable person to (1) fear for the person’s safety or the safety of others; or (2) 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.
  • Example: A female student reports that she is being followed by a man she met at her job at a café off-campus. He began showing up at the café and would not leave her alone. Since then she has also noticed him following her around campus and she fears for her safety.

The Clery Act defines on campus as any buildings or properties: owned or controlled by the college/university, reasonably contiguous to one another, and directly support or relate to the college/university’s educational purpose.

Clery defines “controlled” as schools directly or indirectly renting, leasing, or holding a written agreement, formal or informal (including an email), for use of at least some of a property, regardless of whether the college/university is paying for that space.

West Liberty’s on-campus facilities include all buildings, facilities, and properties of the main campus located in West Liberty, WV.  This includes leased housing facilities located adjacent to main campus property.

Public property consists of areas owned by a public entity within the campus or immediately adjacent to and accessible from the campus.  If the space is privately owned it is not public property.  For spaces that immediately border the college/university and are accessible from the campus, only the portions of the sidewalk and street that are adjacent to the campus are included in your public property.

West Liberty’s public property includes public roads and sidewalks throughout the town of West Liberty that are adjacent to the main campus property.

Non-campus buildings or property are defined as those properties located in another city, state or country that are used in relation to the college/university educational purposes, frequently used by students, and not within the same reasonably contiguous area of the campus.

This label also applies to a space owned or controlled by an officially recognized student organization except for a fraternity or sorority house located within the confines of campus on land owned by the institution which under Clery geography is considered on campus.

West Liberty non-campus buildings include the facilities at the Highlands Campus, located at Wharton Circle, Wheeling, WV.

• Named for Jeanne Clery, a 19 year old Lehigh University freshman who was raped and murdered in her campus residence hall in 1986.
• Requires institutions that receive federal funding to identify individuals and organizations to:
  • Train Campus Security Authorities
  • Complete Annual Security Report
  • Report Crime Statistics to the Department of Education annually
  • Maintain publicly available Daily Crime Log
  • Maintain Fire Safety Information
  • Provide Timely Warnings of incidents that pose an ongoing threat to safety of students/employees
  • Issue emergency notifications to campus in situations that involve immediate threat to health or safety of campus community members.

• CSAs are determined based on job function not by title.
• CSAs include four categories:
  • University Police
  • Security staff responsible for monitoring University property
  • People/Offices designated as those to whom crimes should be reported
  • “Officials with significant responsibility for student and campus activities”

• CSAs at West Liberty University include the following:
  • Vice President of Student Services
  • Deans of Academic Colleges
  • Executive Director of Housing & Student Life/Judicial Coordinator
  • Director of Student Activities/Title IX Coordinator
  • Area Coordinators
  • Hall Directors
  • Graduate Assistant Housing Staff
  • Resident Assistants
  • Athletic Coaches (including graduate assistant and part-time coaches)
  • Director of the College Union
  • Faculty/Staff Advisors for Clubs and Organizations
• The following are not CSAs at West Liberty University:
  • Administrative Staff
  • Faculty/Staff that do not serve as advisors for clubs and organizations
  • Doctor/Nurse in Student Health Services
  • Counselor

• Review the information for CSA Training through our Online CSA Training.
• Complete the confirmation of training form found in the online training presentation.
• To schedule a training, or for additional information, please email msnyder@westliberty.edu.