The Clery Act
The Clery Act is named in memory of 19-year-old university freshman Jeanne Ann Clery who was raped and murdered while asleep in her residence hall room at Lehigh University on April 5, 1986. Jeanne’s parents, Connie and Howard, discovered that students hadn’t been told about 38 violent crimes on their daughter’s campus in the three years before her murder. They joined with other campus crime victims and persuaded Congress to enact this law, which was originally known as the “Crime Awareness and Campus Security Act of 1990.” The law was amended in 1992 to add a requirement that schools afford the victims of campus sexual assault certain basic rights, and was amended again in 1998 to expand the reporting requirements. The 1998 amendments also formally named the law in memory of Jeanne Clery. Subsequent amendments in 2000 and 2008 added provisions dealing with registered sex offender notification and campus emergency response, respectively. The 2008 amendments also added a provision to protect crime victims, “whistleblowers”, and others from retaliation.
More information can be found at the Clery Center for Security On Campus.