Give Extra Thought To Reporting ‘Stalking’ On This Year’s Clery Act Report

As we discussed in a previous post, the Violence Against Women Reauthorization Act of 2013 (VAWA) amended the Clery Act to require institutions, among other things, to gather and report statistics for incidents of domestic violence, dating violence, and stalking. The U.S. Department of Education has directed institutions to make a good-faith effort to gather and publish the new statistics in this year's Annual Security Report, with the understanding that schools will be required to report the new statistics to the Department (through the web-based reporting system) in 2015.

Of the three new crimes introduced by VAWA, stalking is unique in that it involves a pattern of conduct that occurs over a period of time and, potentially, in various locations. As a consequence, identifying, recording, and reporting incidents of stalking present particular challenges. With regard to the identification of stalking, institutions are required to use the following definition, set