In the United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

, a federal crime or federal offense is a crime

Crime

Crime is the breach of rules or laws for which some governing authority can ultimately prescribe a conviction...

 that is made illegal by U.S. federal legislation. In the United States, criminal law and prosecution happen at both the federal and the state

U.S. state

A U.S. state is any one of the 50 federated states of the United States of America that share sovereignty with the federal government. Because of this shared sovereignty, an American is a citizen both of the federal entity and of his or her state of domicile. Four states use the official title of...

 levels; thus a “federal crime” is one that is prosecuted under federal criminal law, and not under a state's criminal law, where most of the crimes committed in the United States are prosecuted.

This includes many crimes that, if they did not occur on U.S. federal property or on Indian reservation

Indian reservation

An American Indian reservation is an area of land managed by a Native American tribe under the United States Department of the Interior's Bureau of Indian Affairs...

s, would otherwise fall under state or local law. Some crimes are listed in Title 18 of the United States Code, but others fall under other titles; for instance, tax evasion

Tax evasion

Tax evasion is the general term for efforts by individuals, corporations, trusts and other entities to evade taxes by illegal means. Tax evasion usually entails taxpayers deliberately misrepresenting or concealing the true state of their affairs to the tax authorities to reduce their tax liability,...

 and possession of weapons banned by the National Firearms Act

National Firearms Act

The National Firearms Act , 73rd Congress, Sess. 2, ch. 757, , enacted on June 26, 1934, currently codified as amended as , is an Act of Congress that, in general, imposes a statutory excise tax on the manufacture and transfer of certain firearms and mandates the registration of those firearms. The...

 are criminalized in Title 26 of the United States Code.

Numerous federal agencies have been granted powers to investigate federal offenses to include, but not limited to, the ATF, DEA, FBI, ICE, IRS, Secret Service, et al.

Mail fraud which crosses state lines or involves the (national) United States Postal Service

United States Postal Service

The United States Postal Service is an independent agency of the United States government responsible for providing postal service in the United States...

 is a federal offense.
Other federal crimes include kidnapping, tax evasion, counterfeiting, theft of major artwork from a museum, damaging or destroying public mailboxes, immigration offenses, and since 1965, assassinating the President or Vice President, although these were not made federal crimes until after President John F. Kennedy

John F. Kennedy

John Fitzgerald "Jack" Kennedy , often referred to by his initials JFK, was the 35th President of the United States, serving from 1961 until his assassination in 1963....

's assassination.

In drug-related federal offenses mandatory minimums can be enforced. A mandatory minimum is a federally regulated minimum sentence for offenses of certain drugs.

Prosecution guidelines are established by the United States Attorney

United States Attorney

United States Attorneys represent the United States federal government in United States district court and United States court of appeals. There are 93 U.S. Attorneys stationed throughout the United States, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, Guam, and the Northern Mariana Islands...

 in each federal judicial district

United States federal judicial district

For purposes of the federal judicial system, Congress has divided the United States into judicial districts. There are 94 federal judicial districts, including at least one district in each state, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico...

 and by laws that Congress has already established.

See also

• Law of the United States
  Law of the United States
  The law of the United States consists of many levels of codified and uncodified forms of law, of which the most important is the United States Constitution, the foundation of the federal government of the United States...
  
  
• Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF)
• Drug Enforcement Administration
  Drug Enforcement Administration
  The Drug Enforcement Administration is a federal law enforcement agency under the United States Department of Justice, tasked with combating drug smuggling and use within the United States...
  
   (DEA)
• Federal Air Marshal Service
  Federal Air Marshal Service
  The Federal Air Marshal Service is a United States federal law enforcement agency under the supervision of the Transportation Security Administration of the United States Department of Homeland Security...
  
   (FAMS)
• Federal Bureau of Investigation
  Federal Bureau of Investigation
  The Federal Bureau of Investigation is an agency of the United States Department of Justice that serves as both a federal criminal investigative body and an internal intelligence agency . The FBI has investigative jurisdiction over violations of more than 200 categories of federal crime...
  
   (FBI)
• Federal Bureau of Prisons
  Federal Bureau of Prisons
  The Federal Bureau of Prisons is a federal law enforcement agency subdivision of the United States Department of Justice and is responsible for the administration of the federal prison system. The system also handles prisoners who committed acts considered felonies under the District of Columbia's...
  
   (BOP)
• Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE)
• United States Border Patrol
  United States Border Patrol
  The United States Border Patrol is a federal law enforcement agency within U.S. Customs and Border Protection , a component of the Department of Homeland Security . It is an agency in the Department of Homeland Security that enforces laws and regulations for the admission of foreign-born persons to...
  
  
• United States Customs and Border Protection
• United States Marshals Service
  United States Marshals Service
  The United States Marshals Service is a United States federal law enforcement agency within the United States Department of Justice . The office of U.S. Marshal is the oldest federal law enforcement office in the United States; it was created by the Judiciary Act of 1789...
  
   (USMS)
• United States Postal Inspection Service
  United States Postal Inspection Service
  The United States Postal Inspection Service is the law enforcement arm of the United States Postal Service. Its jurisdiction is defined as "crimes that may adversely affect or fraudulently use the U.S...
  
  
• United States Secret Service
  United States Secret Service
  The United States Secret Service is a United States federal law enforcement agency that is part of the United States Department of Homeland Security. The sworn members are divided among the Special Agents and the Uniformed Division. Until March 1, 2003, the Service was part of the United States...
  
   (USSS)
• Classes of offenses under United States federal law
  Classes of offenses under United States federal law
  The classes of offenses under United States federal law are as follows:References-See also:*Special assessment on convicted persons*Supervised release*Probation and supervised release under United States federal law‎...
  
  

External links

• US Code Title 18 via Cornell University
• US Code Title 18 via Office of the Law Revision Counsel
• Federal Bureau of Investigation--Legislation