SOCIAL AGENCY

Social Agency



Social Agency

Introduction

In this study we select FBI as a federal criminal justice social agency of the United States and analyze the organization in a holistic context.

The History of the FBI

This report gives a little insight and history of the FBI. Though some people think we do not need the FBI; they do have tasks that no other law enforcement agency could do or do as well. The FBI started out rather controversial and to some extent still is and probably always will be do to the nature of their job. (Williams, 1981)

The FBI got its start from a force of Special Agents that were created in 1908 by Attorney General Charles Bonaparte when Theodore Roosevelt was president. This was a time when law enforcement was often political rather than professional; this was much of the controversy. On July 26,1908 Bonaparte ordered ten special agents to report to the Chief Examiner of the Department of Justice. This is celebrated as the beginning of the FBI. Little did they know what was in store for them in the near and distant future? They would soon become very important.(Williams, 1981)

Gangsters were having great success's because there crimes were federal in nature, but under local jurisdiction. There was limited success in going after people like Al Capone and the KKK. In 1924 Hoover was appointed to head the Bureau, by this time there were about 650 employees with 441 of them being special agents that worked out of field offices in nine different cities. Hoover brought a lot change to the FBI, most of which were in the form new training requirements and a preference for agents with earlier experience in law or accounting. Hoovers goals were to make the FBI more professional and less corrupt. He did this by having inspections done of the various field offices and by working with the public.(Williams, 1981)

By the mid 20's Hoover established an Identification Division for tracking criminals. By this time most of the major cities had started to fingerprint and keep track of criminals through their records, but police departments were reluctant to share this information with the FBI. The police was keeping their records separate from the FBI. (Williams, 1981)

In 1924 congress ordered the FBI and police records to be joined and put the FBI in charge of it. Law enforcement agencies started contributing finger print card to the FBI from all over the country. This compiled data would eventually lead to the formation of the Uniform Crime Reports. The lawless years were soon to end. But this is just the beginning of an interesting history of the FBI and the changes that would take place. Some of these changes would help shape our country as it is today. (Williams, 1981)

World War Two would turn out to be a time of growing for the FBI. They were being kept busy with radicals in this country and saboteurs from other countries. In this time the FBI almost doubled its agents to about 13,000 ...