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Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI)
 Encyclopædia
Britannica Article |
In 1908 the then attorney
general of the United States, Charles J.
Bonaparte , established the Bureau of Investigation within the
Department of Justice to answer the need for a federal investigative
body. In 1924 Attorney General Harlan Fiske Stone (later to become chief
justice of the United States) appointed
J. Edgar Hoover (1895–1972) as its director and ordered that the
bureau be reorganized. Reappointed to that post by successive attorneys
general, Hoover was primarily responsible for the development of the
bureau and its professional standards in law enforcement, though his
frequent overzealousness and occasional persecutions have been
criticized.
Law enforcement in the
United States remains principally a responsibility of state and local
governments. However, trends toward centralization, the adoption of
federal regulatory legislation, the passage of many substantive federal
criminal laws, and the need of local law enforcement for supportive
services (such as central FBI fingerprint files and laboratory
facilities) have increased the responsibilities and duties of the
bureau.
The Federal Bureau of
Investigation has investigative jurisdiction with respect to most
federal criminal laws and other matters in which the United States is or
may be a party in interest. This responsibility extends to some 180
areas of the criminal law (ranging from aircraft piracy and
antiracketeering statutes through kidnapping to white-slave
trafficking), and, in addition, the bureau is charged with collecting
evidence in most civil cases in which the United States is or may be a
party.
The principal exceptions to
the bureau's federal criminal investigative jurisdiction lie in
specialized fields. These include narcotics violations and immigration
matters (which fall in the jurisdiction of the Drug Enforcement
Administration and the Immigration and Naturalization Service, both in
the Department of Justice); tax, customs, and currency violations (the
Internal Revenue Service, Bureau of Customs, and the Secret Service, all
of which are agencies of the Treasury Department); security frauds (the
Securities and Exchange Commission); and postal violations (the U.S.
Postal Service).
Between 1961 and 1968
Congress enacted significant legislation protecting civil rights,
addressed to such matters as elections and discrimination in public
facilities, education, and employment. During this same period, a
growing awareness of the existence of large organized criminal
syndicates stimulated federal criminal legislation directed to their
control. These laws and programs formulated by the Department of Justice
greatly expanded the investigative role of the bureau.
The bureau's
responsibilities in the internal-security field include matters relating
to espionage, counterespionage, sabotage, treason, sedition, and related
internal-security matters. In connection with these duties, the bureau
is responsible for correlating information on internal-security matters
and disseminating it to other interested federal agencies. The bureau is
represented on the United States Intelligence Board, a body created by
the president's National Security Council.
Investigations of applicants
and employees of the federal government who have or may be considered
for sensitive positions are conducted by the bureau.
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