Crime Reporting

Clery Crime Definitions

The Clery Act requires Thomas Jefferson University to disclose the following general categories of statistics: Criminal Offenses; Sex Offenses; Alcohol, Weapons and Drug Violations; and Hate Crimes. Reportable offenses include those listed below, which are set forth and defined as follows:

Criminal Homicide

Murder: The willful (non-negligent) killing of one human being by another.

Manslaughter

Non-negligent Manslaughter [Murder]: the willful (nonnegligent) killing of one human being by another.

Manslaughter by Negligence [Criminal Homicide]: the killing of another person through gross negligence.

Sex Offenses

Rape: is the penetration, no matter how slight, of the vagina or anus with any body part or object, or oral penetration of a sex organ of another person, without the consent of the victim.

Fondling: is the touching of the private body parts of another 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 temporary or permanent mental or physical incapacity.

Incest: is non-forcible sexual intercourse between persons who are related to each other within the degrees wherein marriage is prohibited by law.

Statutory rape: Sexual intercourse between persons who are related to each other within the degrees wherein marriage is prohibited by law.

In Pennsylvania, it is illegal for an adult (someone 18 or older) to have sex with a minor (someone younger than 16), even if the sex is consensual.

Robbery:  The taking or attempting to take anything 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 attack is usually assault accompanied by the use of a weapon or by means likely to produce death or great bodily harm. (It is not necessary that injury results 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. (Classify as a motor vehicle theft all cases where automobiles 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 a house, public building, motor vehicle or aircraft, personal property of another, etc.

Domestic Violence: A pattern of abusive behavior in any relationship that is used by one partner to gain or maintain power and control over another intimate partner. Domestic violence can be physical, sexual, emotional, economic, or psychological actions or threats of actions that influence another person. This includes any behaviors that intimidate, manipulate, humiliate, isolate, frighten, terrorize, coerce, threaten, blame, hurt, injure, or wound someone

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 is dating violence. The existence of such a relationship shall be determined based on a consideration of the length of the relationship; the type of relationship and the frequency of interaction between the persons involved in the relationship.

Stalking: A pattern of repeated and unwanted attention, harassment, contact, or any other course of conduct directed at a specific person that would cause a reasonable person to feel fear.

Hate Crimes

Includes all of the crimes listed above, where the law requires the release of statistics by category of prejudice where the victim was intentionally selected because of the perpetrator’s bias against the victim based on one of the Categories of Prejudice listed below, plus the following crimes.

Larceny Theft: The unlawful taking, carrying, leading, or riding away of property from the possession, or constructive possession, of another.

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.

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 aggrieved bodily injury involving apparent broken bones, loss of teeth, possible internal injury, severe laceration, or loss of consciousness.

Categories of Prejudice under Hate Crimes are as follows:

Race: A preformed negative attitude toward a group of persons who possess common physical characteristics genetically transmitted by descent and heredity that distinguish them as a distinct division of humankind.

Gender: A preformed negative opinion or attitude toward a group of persons because those persons are male or female.

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.

Gender Identity: A preformed negative opinion or attitude toward a group of persons because the perceived gender of those persons may be different from the gender traditionally associated with their gender at birth.

Weapon Law Violations:  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.

Drug Abuse Violations: 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).

Liquor Law Violations: The violation of laws or ordinances prohibiting: the manufacture, sale, transportation, furnishing, possessing of intoxicating liquor; maintaining unlawful drinking places; bootlegging; operating a still; furnishing liquor to a minor or intemperate person; using a vehicle for illegal transportation of liquor; drinking on a train or public conveyance; and all attempts to commit any of the aforementioned. (Public Drunkenness and Driving Under the Influence are not included in this definition).