Clery Act Information

It is an unfortunate fact that criminal incidents of all types occur on college campuses. Most colleges around the country investigate and make public the nature and frequency of crimes. Whittier College follows this practice and believes that reporting this information to the public increases community awareness about taking steps to prevent criminal activity. Records of Clery Act Campus Crime Statistics for the past few years are available for review online or in print at Campus Safety headquarters.

Special Crime Alerts: When circumstances warrant, crime alert flyers are distributed throughout the campus and posted on the department web site in a timely manner.

Communications Log: Campus Safety records and maintains a daily log of all department activity. The log is available upon request. 

Crime Log & Media: Summaries of campus crime incidents are published in the Quaker Campus newspaper. Campus Safety also works in partnership with the Quaker Campus to publish information related to crime and campus safety issues.

 

Originally known as the "Campus Security Act", the Jeanne Clery Disclosure of Campus Security Policy and Campus Crime Statistics Act (20 USC § 1092(f)), also known as the "Clery Act", is the landmark federal law that requires colleges and universities across the United States to disclose information about crime on and around their campuses.To comply with the disclosure requirement regarding crime statistics, the Department of Campus Safety annually publishes crime statistics for the past three years of crimes mandated by the Act. Definitions were taken from the Handbook for Campus Safety and Security Reporting (Department of Education, 2011).

Criminal Offenses

Criminal Homicide

• Murder and Non-Negligent Manslaughter: the willful (non-negligent) killing of one human being by another.
• Negligent Manslaughter: the killing of another person through gross negligence.

Sex Offenses

• Forcible: any sexual act directed against another person, forcibly and/or against that person’s will; or not forcibly or against the person’s will where the victim is incapable of giving consent.  There are four types of Forcible Sex Offenses:
  • Forcible Rape-the carnal knowledge of a person, forcibly and/or against that person's will; or not forcibly or against the person's will where the victim is incapable of giving consent because of his/her temporary or permanent mental or physical incapacity (or because of his/her youth). This offense includes the forcible rape of both males and females.
  • Forcible Sodomy-oral or anal sexual intercourse with another person, forcibly and/or against that person's will; or not forcibly or against the person's will where the victim is incapable of giving consent because of his/her youth or because of his/her temporary or permanent mental or physical incapacity.
  • Sexual Assault with an Object-the use of an object or instrument to unlawfully penetrate, however slightly, the genital or anal opening of the body of another person, forcibly and/or against that person's will; or not forcibly or against the person's will where the victim is incapable of giving consent because of his/her youth or because of his/her temporary or permanent mental or physical incapacity. An object or instrument is anything used by the offender other than the offender’s genitalia. Examples are a finger, bottle, handgun, stick, etc.
  • Forcible Fondling-the touching of the private body parts of another person for the purpose of sexual gratification, forcibly and/or against that person's will; or, not forcibly or against the person's will where the victim is incapable of giving consent because of his/her youth or because of his/her temporary or permanent mental incapacity.
• Non-Forcible: unlawful, non-forcible sexual intercourse. There are two types of Non-forcible Sex Offenses:
  • Incest- non-forcible sexual intercourse between persons who are related to each other within the degrees wherein marriage is prohibited by law.
  • Statutory Rape - non-forcible sexual intercourse with a person who is under the statutory age of consent.

Robbery 

The taking or attempting to take anything from value of 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.

Burglary

The unlawful entry of a structure to commit a felony or a theft. An incident must meet three conditions to be classified as a Burglary:

• There must be evidence of unlawful entry (trespass). This means that the person did not have the right to be in the structure at the time the incident occurred.
• The unlawful entry must occur within a structure, which is defined as having four walls, a roof, and a door.
• The structure was unlawfully entered to commit a felony or a theft.
• Motor Vehicle Theft: the theft or attempted theft of a motor vehicle.
• 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.

Hate Crimes

A hate crime is a criminal offense committed against a person or property which 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/gender identity, religion, disability, sexual orientation or ethnicity/national origin.

• Race: A preformed negative attitude toward a group of persons who possess common physical characteristics genetically transmitted by descent and heredity, which distinguish them as a distinct division of humankind.
• Gender/Gender Identity:  A preformed negative opinion or attitude toward a group of persons because those persons perceived or actual gender or gender identity.
• 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.
• Sexual Orientation: A preformed negative opinion or attitude toward a group of persons based on their sexual attraction toward, and responsiveness to, members of their own sex or members of the opposite sex.
• Ethnicity/National Origin: A preformed negative opinion or attitude toward a group of persons of the same race or national origin who share common or similar traits, languages, customs and traditions.
• Disability: A preformed negative opinion or attitude toward a group of persons based on their physical or mental impairments/challenges, whether such disability is temporary or permanent, congenital or acquired by heredity, accident, injury, advanced age or illness.

Hate crimes include all the crimes listed above if there is evidence that a victim was chosen based on a category of bias.  The following crimes are also included:

• Larceny-Theft: the unlawful taking, carrying, leading, or riding away of property from the possession or constructive possession of another. (Larceny and theft mean the same thing in the Uniform Crime Reporting)
  • Constructive possession is the condition in which a person does not have physical custody or possession, but is in a position to exercise dominion or control over a thing.
• 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.
• 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.
• 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.

Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) Categories

In 2014, the United States Department of Education amended the Clery Act to include regulations for the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA).  These regulations expand rights afforded to campus survivors of sexual assault, domestic violence, dating violence, and stalking.  In addition to reporting statements of policy and crime statistics regarding these categories, colleges and universities are required to provide description of prevention programs, procedures for response to reports, and procedures for disciplinary cases regarding these categories.   The VAWA categories are defined below:

• Dating Violence: violence by a person who has been in a romantic or intimate relationship with the victim. Whether there was such relationship will be gauged by its length, type, and frequency of interaction.
• Domestic Violence: includes asserted violent misdemeanor and felony offenses committed by the victim's current or former spouse, current or former cohabitant, person similarly situated under domestic or family violence law, or anyone else protected under domestic or family violence law.
• Stalking: a course of conduct directed at a specific person that would cause a reasonable person to fear for her, his, or others' safety, or to suffer substantial emotional distress.

All of the crimes listed above must be reported annually to the U.S. Department of Education. Furthermore, statistics and daily crime logs of these crimes must be readily available to the public upon request. Campus Safety will immediately provide, upon request, a written log of crimes that have occurred on and around College property within at least 60 days of the request. 

The Campus Sex Crimes Prevention Act (CSCPA) of 2000, a federal law, requires institutions of higher education to provide the campus community with information on where they may obtain information on registered sex offenders in the state of California. It also requires sex offender registrants who are already required to register in the state to provide notice, as required under state law, to each institution of higher education for which the person is currently enrolled as a student, full- or part-time employee (with or without compensation), or those participating in a vocation (California Penal Code Section 290.009). As the Department of Campus Safety is not a law enforcement agency, the registration process must be conducted at the Whittier Police Department.

In the state of California, convicted sex offenders must register with their local law enforcement agencies. Megan's Law allows the public to access the registry.  It also authorizes local law enforcement to notify the public about high-risk and serious sex offenders who reside in, are employed in, or frequent the community.  Public information regarding sex offenders in California may be obtained by viewing *Megan's Law.

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