Clery Reportable Offenses

The Clery Act requires UT to disclose in our Annual Security & Fire Safety Report the number of incidents that: 

1. Were reported to a campus security authority or to law enforcement; 
2. Occurred on campus or at another location specified in the law as part of UT’s Clery geography; and 
3. Meet the definition of an offense specified in the Clery Act. 

Clery Geography 

Crimes that occur on campus, within buildings owned or controlled by UT, and on public property adjacent to campus must be reported under the Clery Act. It is important to note that this includes more than just the main campus – UT owns buildings all over Austin and owns or controls real estate all over the world. Crimes that occur at certain non-campus facilities, such as locations owned or controlled by recognized student organizations and Greek houses, must also be reported. If you are unsure whether an incident occurred within UT's Clery geography, you should report the incident.

Clery Act Offenses 

The Clery Act does not require UT to disclose all types of crime occurring within the institution’s Clery geography. Instead, the law requires the institution to disclose specific types of crime within four major categories: criminal offenses, hate crimes, arrests and referrals, and VAWA offenses. If you are unsure whether an incident meets the definition of a Clery Act crime, you should report the incident.

Criminal Offenses

The Clery Act requires that crimes that meet the following definitions be disclosed. 

Criminal Homicide 

• Murder/Nonnegligent Manslaughter: the willful (nonnegligent) killing of one human being by another 
• Manslaughter by Negligence: the killing of another person through gross negligence 

Sex Offenses (Mandatory report to Title IX under Texas law) 

• 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, without the consent of the victim. This definition also includes instances in which the victim is incapable of giving consent because of temporary or permanent mental or physical incapacity (including 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 incapable of giving consent because of their age or because of their 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. 

Other Crimes 

• 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 which could and probably would result in 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: 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 including incidents where a vehicle is taken by a person not having lawful access even though the vehicle is later abandoned. i.e. joyriding (Motor vehicles include the golf carts and ATVs commonly seen on campus.)  
• 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. 

Arrests & Referrals

The Clery Act also requires the reporting of arrests and disciplinary referrals for:  

• Drug Law Violations: 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. 
• Liquor Law Violations: violation of laws or ordinances prohibiting the manufacture, sale, purchase, transportation, possession, or use of alcoholic beverages. 
• Weapons Violations: 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. 

Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) Offenses (Mandatory report to Title IX under Texas law) 

Additionally, it is a requirement of the Clery Act to report the following VAWA offenses, even if the victim does not consider themselves to be a victim: 

• 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. 
  • 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. 
• Domestic Violence: a felony or misdemeanor crime of violence committed by: 
  • A current or former spouse or intimate partner of the victim; 
  • A person with whom the victim shares a child in common; 
  • A person who is cohabitating with, or has cohabitated with, the victim as a spouse or intimate partner; 
  • 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 
  • 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 to 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. 

Hate Crimes

A hate crime is a committed criminal offense against a person or property motivated in whole or in part by an offender’s bias against a race, religion, disability, sexual orientation, ethnicity, gender, or gender identity. Any of the previous crimes listed and the following additional crimes must be reported as hate crimes if motivated by such a bias: 

• 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. 
• Larceny-theft: the unlawful taking, carrying, leading, or riding away of property from the possession or constructive possession of another.* 
• 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. 
• Destruction/Damage/Vandalism: to willfully or maliciously destroy, injure, disfigure, or deface any public or private property, real or personal, without the consent of the owner or person having custody or control by cutting, tearing, breaking, marking, painting, drawing, covering with filth, or any other such means as may be specified by local law. 

* It is common for individuals describing an incident to use the term "robbed" though the offense being described may be a burglary or a larceny-theft. If the offense classification is unclear, the incident should still be reported to UTPD or the Clery Compliance Manager.