U.S. Marshals

In the past few weeks in my AP United States History class, we have been learning about John Marshall and certain Supreme Court decisions, such as Marbury v. Madison, and Dartmouth College v. Woodward. However, during a lecture, my teacher talked about how the Supreme Court had no authority to enforce the law that it declared. As a result, a question came to mind: How does the Supreme Court enforce its laws? I tried to answer this question, and soon found out that the U.S. Marshal Service is a separate U.S. agency that is the enforcement arm of U.S. Federal Courts. It was founded by the Judiciary Act of 1789, which stated that the U.S. Marshals' main function was law enforcement. Thus, they are the oldest American federal law enforcement office. Here are some pictures of the responsibilities of the U.S. Marshal Service.

Some of the main responsibilities of a U.S. Marshal include: protection of the officers of the court, assistance in court security/prison transport, and for seeking fugitives. Through the years, the U.S. Marshals have done many interesting missions. Some examples of these missions are enforcing Prohibition during the 1920s, protecting American athletes during the Olympics, and being in charge of law enforcement of U.S. personnel in Antarctica since 1989. As you can see, the U.S Marshal Service is quite an exciting job, and is one that I found intriguing. Hopefully, I have helped you grow a passion for criminal justice jobs, just like I do.

Federal Bureau of Investigation

     Since I have informed you on certain college courses that apply to criminal justice and colleges that are good for this degree, I now want get to the fun part: talking about the jobs themselves. In order to be able to effectively explain each job, I received a book a few weeks ago that analyzes each career of the criminal justice world. The first one that caught my eye was the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). Here are pictures of the FBI field office in Washington D.C., and of FBI agents gathering evidence.

    
     This book told me a nice overview of the FBI. To start with the basics, it's the main investigative organization of the federal government. As a result, the FBI has a lot of responsibilities, such as investigating organized crime, bank robbery, financial crime, espionage, terrorism, extortion, kidnapping, drug trafficking, and having to inquire into the violations of over 260 laws. If you were to become a special agent, you could conduct surveillance, track movement of stolen property, and participate in undercover assignments. The FBI does provide important services to other law enforcement agencies in the country, such as providing their laboratory (the largest criminal laboratory in the world) without cost to other police organizations. Hopefully after reading this, you now have a better understanding of the FBI or have a new interest in joining it. Next week, I will continue to explain certain criminal justice careers.

 

Foreign Language

     Lately, I've been curious about certain college courses that are beneficial or required for a criminal justice career. Searching through various sites, many articles talked about the importance of proficiency in a foreign language, such as Arabic, which happens to be one of the six official languages of the United Nations (the other five languages: English, Spanish, French, Chinese, and Russian). This being so, the Federal Government has increasingly stressed the value of Arabic, as a language vital to US security. Here is a picture of the flags at the UN Headquarters in New York, and a picture of a map identifying all the countries and their specific UN language.



    









    









George Washington University (GW), which is located in Washington D.C., stood out to me because it offers a major and minor in Arabic. At this university, they offer students a multitude of opportunities, such as being able to further their academic knowledge in Arabic by studying comparative literature and international affairs. Also, a requirement for a major in Arabic is overseas studies for a semester, where you would go to a country that natively speak Arabic. It's a great experience! By the end of this program, GW graduates will be well-suited to take on jobs such as counter-terrorism experts, interpreters, and Foreign Service Officers.

     After seeing how a foreign language works in a college setting, I wanted to grasp how you could apply it to a career. The United States Secret Service values the significance of knowing a foreign language. This government agency is mainly known for protecting the president and his family, however, they also do criminal investigations of financial crime and computer-based attacks on the nation's infrastructure. Special agents could get a 25% bonus pay if they are able to speak a second language with sufficient accuracy. Wow! Four years of Spanish in high school is really beneficial! After reading this, I am motivated to continue on with Spanish into college, so that I may be able to get a better paying job. It's amazing how lucky I am to be able to start studying a foreign language at such a young age. Next week, I will begin talking about job descriptions of certain criminal justice careers.