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Although the office of the Attorney General dates from 1789, the Department of Justice was not established until 1870. Today, its responsibilities are diverse and wide ranging. These responsibilities are carried out through the Department's component organizations: the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) investigate Federal crimes; the United States Marshals Service (USMS) protects the Federal judiciary, apprehends fugitives, detains prisoners and supports the Federal courts; the United States Attorneys and the litigating divisions prosecute offenders and represent the United States of America in Federal court; the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) controls the border and carries out the Nation's immigration statutes; and the Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) incarcerates sentenced offenders. The Office of Justice Programs (OJP) and the Office of Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) assist State and local governments. OJP's National Institute of Justice (NIJ) develops and disseminates knowledge about crime and justice issues; its Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) collects, analyzes, publishes and disseminates information on crime, criminal offenders, victims of crime and the operation of the justice systems at all levels of government. Other components also help administer the system of justice and further the Department's mission (the United States Trustees, the Community Relations Service, the Justice Management Division, the Executive Office for Immigration Review, the Office of the Inspector General, among others).
Although the Department is headquartered in Washington, D.C., most of its work takes place outside of Washington. As a result, most of its employees are located in any of about 2,600 installations of the Department around the country (ranging from a one- or two-person border station to a large Division office in a major city), or in one of more than 100 overseas offices. Overall, the Department of Justice had a budget of over $16 billion in 1996, an 18.7-percent increase over last year’s budget of $13.8 billion.