Introduction

The United States Attorneys and the Civil Rights Division share responsibility for enforcement of criminal civil rights statutes. The Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Rights Division and the Civil Rights Division’s Criminal Section oversee that enforcement. The principal criminal statutes whose enforcement is overseen by the Civil Rights Division are 18 U.S.C. § 241 (Conspiracy to Injure Citizens in the Exercise of Federal Rights); 18 U.S.C. § 242 (Willful Deprivations of Federal Rights Under Color of Law); 18 U.S.C. § 245 (Interference with Federally Protected Activities); 18 U.S.C. § 247 (Damage to Religious Property); 18 U.S.C. § 248 (Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances); 18 U.S.C. § 249 (Hate Crime Prevention Act); 250 (Civil Rights Offenses Involving Sexual Misconduct); 42 U.S.C. § 3631 (Interference with Fair Housing Activities); 18 U.S.C. § 1581 (Peonage); 18 U.S.C. § 1584 (Involuntary Servitude); 18 U.S.C. § 1589 (Forced Labor); 18 U.S.C. § 1590 (Trafficking with Respect to Servitude); 18 U.S.C. § 1591 (Sex Trafficking); 18 U.S.C. § 1592 (Document Servitude), and 18 U.S.C. § 1594(a), (b), and (c) (Attempting and Conspiring to Violate Trafficking Statutes). United States Attorneys’ Offices, working in coordination with the Civil Rights Division, are jointly responsible for enforcement of criminal civil rights statutes in their individual districts.

[updated December 2022]