Clery Crime Definitions

• Murder/Non-Negligent Manslaughter: The willful (non-negligent) killing of one human being by another. NOTE: Deaths caused by negligence, attempts to kill, assaults to kill, suicides, accidental deaths, and justifiable homicides are excluded.
• Manslaughter by Negligence: The killing of another person through gross negligence.
• 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. It is not necessary that injury result from an aggravated assault when a gun, knife or other weapon is used which could or probably would result in a serious potential 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 a 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 motor vehicle theft all cases where automobiles are taken by persons not having lawful access, even though the vehicles are later abandoned—including joy riding.)
• Arson: 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.
• Sexual Assault: Is an offense that meets the definition of rape, fondling, incest, or statutory rape as used in the FBI’s Uniform Crime Reporting system. A sex offense is any act directed against another person, without the consent of the victim, including instances where the victim is incapable of giving consent.
  • Rape: 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 definition includes any gender of victim or perpetrator.
  • Fondling: The touching of the private 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 or her age or because of his or her temporary or permanent mental incapacity.
  •  Incest: Non-forcible sexual intercourse between persons who are related to each other within the degrees wherein marriage is prohibited by law.
  • Statutory Rape: A non-forcible sexual intercourse with a person who is under the statutory age of consent (which is 16 in the State of Michigan).

• Domestic Violence: 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. Michigan State Crime Code defines Domestic Violence as the occurrence of one of the following acts by a person that is not an act of self-defense; causing or attempting to cause physical or mental harm to a family or household member, placing a family or household member in fear of physical or mental harm, causing or attempting to cause a family or household member to engage in involuntary sexual activity by force, threat of force, or duress, engaging in activity toward a family or household member that would cause a reasonable person to feel terrorized, frightened, intimidated, threatened, harassed, or molested.
• Dating Violence: 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:
  • The length of the relationship;
  • The type of relationship;
  • The frequency of interaction between the persons involved in the relationship.
• Stalking: The term ‘‘stalking’’ means engaging in a course of conduct 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.
• Sexual Assault: (See definition under Criminal Offenses.)
  • Note: Sexual Assault is also a VAWA offense but is included in the Criminal Offense category for Clery Act Reporting purposes.

• 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; 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 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.)

Grand Rapids Community College is also required to report statistics for hate (bias) related crimes by the type of bias as defined below for the following classifications: murder/non-negligent manslaughter, sex offenses, robbery, aggravated assault, burglary, motor vehicle theft, arson (see definitions above) and larceny, vandalism, intimidation, and simple assault (see definitions below).

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