USA Patriot Act

The official name of the USA Patriot Act is the ‘Uniting and Strengthening America Act by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism’ of 2001.

This US federal piece of legislation “places special emphasis on foreign investigative work and the investigation of aliens engaged in terrorist activities. At the international level, also, the September 11 attacks have motivated an expansion of cooperation efforts among the police of various countries. Considering the centrality of the United States as the politically and economically most powerful nation in world affairs, the policing of international terrorism heightens the centrality of the role played by U.S. police agencies in international activities surrounding terrorism.”(1)

A “remarkable militarization of the judicial processing of foreign terrorists and new legislation and policies aimed to broaden counter-terrorist police strategies (especially the passing of the Patriot Act and the creation of the Department of Homeland Security) are among the most concrete political efforts to control the work done by the manifold U.S. security agencies involved in the ‘war on terror.’” (2)

Notes and References

1. Deflem, Mathieu. 2005. “International Policing -The Role of the United States.” Pp. 808-812 in The Encyclopedia of Criminology, edited by Richard A. Wright and J. Mitchell Miller. New York: Routledge.
2. Id.

Further Reading

• Deflem, Mathieu. 2001. “International Police Cooperation in Northern America.” Pp. 71-98 in International Police Cooperation: A World Perspective, edited by Daniel J. Koenig and Dilip K. Das. Lanham, MD: Lexington Books.
• Deflem, Mathieu. 2002. Policing World Society: Historical Foundations of International Police Cooperation. Oxford; New York: Oxford University Press.
• Deflem, Mathieu. 2003. “The Boundaries of International Cooperation: Problems and Prospects of U.S.-Mexican Policing.” In Corruption, Police, Security and Democracy, edited by Menachem Amir and Stanley Einstein. Huntsville, TX: Office of International Criminal Justice.
• Dunn, Timothy J. 1996. The Militarization of the U.S.-Mexico Border, 1978-1992. Austin, TX: CMAS Books.
• Koenig, Daniel J., and Dilip K. Das, eds. 2001. International Police Cooperation: A World Perspective. Lanham, MD: Lexington Books.
• Marenin, Otwin. 2001. “United States International Policing Activities: An Overview.” Pp. 297-322 in International Police Cooperation: A World Perspective, edited by Daniel J. Koenig and Dilip K. Das. Lanham, MD: Lexington Books.
• McDonald, William F., ed. 1997. Crime and Law Enforcement in the Global Village. Cincinnati, OH: Anderson Publishing.
• Nadelmann, Ethan A. 1993. Cops Across Borders: The Internationalization of U.S. Criminal Law Enforcement. University Park, PA: Pennsylvania State University Press.

See also

• United States Drug Enforcement Administration
• Federal Bureau of Investigation
• Bureau of Customs and Border Protection
• Office of National Drug Control Policy
• Bureau of Citizenship and Immigration Services
• USA Patriot Act
• Interpol
• International Policing