FBI agents work for the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the law enforcement agency that investigates crimes under the authority of the US Department of Justice.

Special agents make up about one-third of the staff of the FBI, and they investigate all crimes that fall under the jurisdiction of the bureau, including terrorism, cyber crime, public corruption, civil rights violations, white-collar crime, and organized crime. They also conduct foreign counterintelligence and assist state and local law enforcement agencies with laboratory examinations and fingerprint identification.