Jeanne Clery was a student at Lehigh University who was raped and murdered in her dorm room.

Jeanne's parents lobbied to have a law passed that would require all institutions of higher learning that receive federal funding to publish the institution's crime statistics, identify resources for those impacted by sexual assault, domestic violence, dating violence, and stalking, as well as policies and procedures related to timely warnings and emergency notifications. The Jeanne Clery Act was passed in 1990. This information is published annually, by October 1, in our Safety, Security, and Fire Report.

For further information on the Jeanne Clery Campus Safety Act, click here:

What is the Jeanne Clery Campus Safety Act?

The Jeanne Clery Campus Safety Act is a federal law that promotes campus safety by ensuring that students, employees, parents, and the broader community are informed about important public safety and crime prevention matters. Being informed enables community members to make informed decisions and take an active role in their own safety and security.

The Clery Act requires higher educational institutions that receive federal funds to:

  • Disclose accurate and complete crime statistics for specified types of incidents that are reported to designated university officials who are Campus Security Authorities (CSAs) and local law enforcement as having occurred on or near the campus.
  • Disclose campus safety policies and procedures that specifically address topics such as sexual assault prevention, drug and alcohol abuse prevention, and emergency response and evacuation.
  • Advise the community about specific crimes and other threats to health and safety that are thought to pose either an ongoing or an immediate threat.

Where Can I Learn More?

The annual Safety, Security and Fire Report contains a wealth of safety and security information including: safety and security policies, information about the role of Campus Security Authorities (CSAs), how the community is informed about potential threats, and three years of crime statistics. The report for the main campus and separate campuses, including overseas campuses, can be found here:

What is a Timely Warning?

The Clery Act requires institutions to issue Timely Warnings to the campus community about specified crimes (the Clery-reportable crimes) that occur on Clery geography, when these crimes are considered to pose a serious or ongoing threat to students and employees. In the event that there is an incident that is neither a Clery-reportable crime or an incident that requires an Emergency Notification, the university may, on a case-by-case basis, use the AlertSU system to send a notification (e.g., power failure or missing child).

What is an Emergency Notification?

An Emergency Notification is sent upon the confirmation of a significant emergency or dangerous situation involving an immediate threat to the health or safety of students or staff occurring on the campus, unless issuing a notification will compromise efforts to contain the emergency. An Emergency Notification is similar to a Timely Warning with some slight differences as noted in the table below.

What are the differences between a Timely Warning and an Emergency Notification?

Timely Warning Emergency Notification
Recipients The entire campus The entire campus, or an identified subset that may be impacted by the emergency
Triggering incident Clery-reportable crimes believed to present a serious or continuing threat to the community Any situation thought to pose an immediate threat to the health and safety of the campus community
Timeline for sending a message As soon as pertinent information is available As soon as first responders confirm a significant emergency or dangerous situation
Follow-up message required? No Yes

Who decides when to issue a Timely Warning or an Emergency Notification?

Authorized persons include: the university President and the Provost (or designee), the General Counsel, the Chief of the Department of Public Safety (or on-scene SUDPS Incident Commander or designee), the Associate Vice Provost for Environmental Health & Safety, the Vice President for Public Affairs, the university Emergency Manager, the Vice President of University Communications (or designee), the Executive Director of UIT Services and the Vice Provost for Institutional Equity, Access and Community.

How is “Timely” Defined?

There is no specific time frame that determines how recent an incident must be to warrant a Timely Warning, or how quickly the resulting AlertSU message must be sent. The most common reason for a delayed notification is because the crime is not immediately reported to DPS.

In what circumstances does Stanford send Timely Warnings about reported sexual assaults?

The decision to issue a Timely Warning for sexual assault or other sex offenses under the Clery Act will be made on a case-by-case basis. Factors that will be considered when making this decision include: the level of force and violence used to commit the crime; the potential use of a drug to commit the crime; and the existence of multiple crimes of a similar nature occurring in close proximity, either in time or location.

The Stanford Chief of the Department of Public Safety and the Vice Provost for Institutional Equity, Access, and Community (or their designees) are responsible for determining whether a Timely Warning will be issued for sexual assaults; either official or their designees may make this determination. Consultation with other university staff persons may occur on a need-to-know basis.

What are Clery-reportable crimes?

  • the willful (non-negligent) killing of one human being by another.

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • 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 a felony; breaking and entering with intent to commit a larceny; housebreaking; safecracking; and all attempts to commit any of the aforementioned.

  • The theft or attempted theft of a motor vehicle. (Classify as motor vehicle theft all cases where automobiles are taken by persons not having lawful access, even though vehicles are later abandoned - including joy riding)

  • The willful or malicious burning or attempt to burn, with or without intent to defraud, a dwelling house, public building, motor vehicle or aircraft, or personal property of another kind.

  • The term ‘‘domestic violence’’ includes felony or misdemeanor crimes of violence committed by a current or former spouse 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, by a person similarly situated to a spouse of the victim under the domestic or family violence laws of the jurisdiction receiving grant monies, 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.

  • The term ‘‘dating violence’’ means violence committed by a person- (A) who is or has been in a social relationship of a romantic or intimate nature with the victim; and (B) where the existence of such a relationship shall be determined based on a consideration of the following factors:(i) The length of the relationship; (ii) The type of relationship; (iii) The frequency of interaction between the persons involved in the relationship.

  • Engaging in a course of conduct (2 or more times) directed at a specific person that would cause a reasonable person to (A) fear for his or her safety or the safety of others; or (B) suffer substantial emotional distress.

  • 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; all attempts to commit any of the aforementioned.

  • Violations of state and local laws relating to the unlawful possession, sale, use, growing, manufacturing, and making of narcotic drugs. Relevant substances include: opium, cocaine, and their derivatives (morphine, heroin, codeine); marijuana; synthetic narcotics (Demerol, methadone); and dangerous non-narcotic drugs (barbiturates, Benzedrine).

  • The violation of laws or ordinance prohibiting: the manufacture, sale, transporting, furnishing, possessing of intoxicating liquor; maintaining unlawful drinking places; bootlegging; operating a still; furnishing liquor to minor or intemperate person; using a vehicle for illegal transportation of liquor; drinking on a train or public conveyance; all attempts to commit any of the aforementioned. (Drunkenness and driving under the influence are not included in this 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. This offense includes the rape of both males and females.

  • 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 or physical incapacity.

  • Non-forcible sexual intercourse with a person who is under the statutory age of consent.

HATE CRIMES

Stanford University is also required to report statistics for hate (bias) motivated crimes by the type of bias, as defined below, for any of the above listed crimes as well as specific instances involving bias in the listed crime below. Types of Bias to include are Gender, Religion, Ethnicity, Gender Identity, Sexual orientation, Race, National Origin, and Disability.

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

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • 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.

    Example: A hate or bias related crime is not a separate, distinct crime, but is the commission of a criminal offense which was motivated by the offender's bias. For example, a subject assaults a victim, which is a crime. If the facts of the case indicate that the offender was motivated to commit the offense because of his bias against the victim's race, sexual orientation, etc., then the assault is classified as a hate/bias crime.

  • 1. Subjecting another person to humiliation, degradation, abuse, or a risk of physical or psychological injury above the reasonable risk encountered in the course of participating in campus or group activities (e.g., physical preparation necessary for participation in an athletic team);

    2. In the course of that person’s initiation into, affiliation with, or maintenance of membership in a student organization, club, athletic team, student government, or other group in which two or more members are students;

    3. Regardless of that person’s willingness to participate;

    4. Regardless of whether the student organization/group is established by, registered with, or recognized by Stanford; and

    5. Regardless of the location of the hazing activity.

What is Clery geography?

Defining the university's Clery geography can be complex. At a high level, Clery geography includes the following locations:

  • On-campus (e.g., the main university campus), including a distinction about whether the crime occurred in student housing.
  • Public property that is located within the main campus or immediately adjacent to the campus.
  • Non-campus buildings or property, that the university owns or controls, that support the academic mission of the campus and are used by students. This is the most complex category to define, as it includes facilities located in other counties (e.g., the Redwood City Campus in San Mateo County), states (e.g., Stanford in Washington), and countries (e.g., overseas studies campuses).

Why might the Department of Public Safety choose to not send a Timely Warning?

A Timely Warning will not be sent if the reported crime is not a serious crime or does not pose an ongoing threat. Additionally, there may not be sufficient information in the Clery crime report to place the incident location within Stanford's Clery geography. A Clery report or Mandated Reporter report may lack other details that would inform officials of the nature or severity of the threat to community safety. In some cases, the victim may decline to speak to or make a report to DPS, or they may only share limited information with other campus officials.

Additionally, if the reported suspect is detained before sufficient information is gathered, confirmed, and composed into an alert, and there is no other information about active safety threats, the Timely Warning process may be cancelled prior to distribution. There is also a provision in the Clery Act noting that a Timely Warning should be sent unless it will compromise efforts to assist a victim or contain, respond to, or mitigate the emergency.

Why aren't crime alerts always issued immediately after an incident occurs?

Timely Warnings can be delayed because information indicating a threat to the community may only be available after some initial investigation, potentially several hours after an incident occurred. The most common reason for a delayed notification is because the crime is not immediately reported to DPS. A Timely Warning may not be sent when an incident is reported after a significant period of time has passed.