The Federal Bureau of Investigation is an agency in the United States of America, which is tasked with the responsibility of criminal investigation and intelligence services. It functions under the Department of Justice and was formulated in the year 1908 as the Bureau of Investigations. However, its name was changed to the Federal Bureau of Investigation in the year 1935.
The FBI plays various roles in crime prevention. One of the most influential roles is protection of the United States from terrorism and terrorism related activities. It also protects the country from foreign intelligence operations, actively participates in cyber-warfare, fights corruption, protects civil rights and combats all forms of crime. The bureau also collaborates to assist the states government and the allies of the United States internationally. However, basing from statistics on the number of cases prosecuted through the bureau, combating crime constituted of the majority of the cases that were investigated and prosecuted by the bureau.
The Federal Bureau of investigation has brought a significant change in criminal investigation. The bureau has many state of the art technologies that cannot be marched to any State or country in the world. This gives the Bureau a head start in criminal investigation since they have all the resources at their disposal. The bureau is therefore, able to assist any state or region in complex cases that would take many years to unravel, or which would never be brought to book by the state government.
As an independent body, the FBI also takes the role of criminal investigation besides intelligence. This eases the burden of criminal investigation from the police or any other department of the states, making the work of criminal investigation more effective and accurate (Theoharis 2009). This is unlike in other countries where the police spend a lot of time doing the work of criminal investigations, in addition to their role of maintaining law and order.
Works Cited
“The Federal Bureau of Investigation”. About us. Viewed 9th April 2011, from <http://www.fbi.gov/about-us>
Theoharis, A. The FBI: A Comprehensive Reference Guide. Connecticut: Greenwood Publishing Group, 2009.
