Under the Clery Act, colleges and universities are required to publish an Annual Safety Report (ASR). The ASR must report all crimes and offenses that occurred by type of crime or offense and by the general location where the crime or offense occurred. The general location categories are 1) on-campus, 2) non-campus, and 3) public property.
The Clery Act also requires colleges to separately report crimes and offenses that occurred in residential housing, as a subset of the on-campus category. The Clery Act is enforced by the United States Department of Education.
The Title IX Act is a civil rights law that focuses on prohibiting discrimination on the basis of gender in education programs and activities of educational institutions. The U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR) clarifies that sexual violence is a form of sex discrimination; therefore, colleges and universities have specific responsibilities for addressing sexual harassment, sexual assault, and other gender-based forms of violence.
History of the Clery Act
The Clery Act was signed into law in 1990 after the 1986 rape and murder of Jeanne Clery, a 19-year-old college student.
The Clery Act requires colleges and universities that participate in federal financial aid programs (known as Title IX schools) to disclose information about crimes occurring on their campuses as well as to have specific campus safety and security-related policies and procedures in place.
The 2013 Violence Against Women Reauthorization Act (VAWA) amended the Clery Act to expand the rights of campus survivors of sexual assault, domestic violence, dating violence, and stalking. These amendments also created new requirements related to institutions’ prevention and response efforts to VAWA-related crimes.
How the Jeanne Clery Act and Title IX Act Intersect with One Another
Colleges and universities must comply with the Clery Act and the Title IX Act, both of which address sexual violence incidents.