The Daily Beast examined a wide range of available data to rank the level of corruption in all 50 states. Each of the following data sets was weighted equally:
•Public corruption, 1998—2008: Convictions of elected and other public officials investigated by federal agents over an 11-year period, from the Department of Justice.
•Racketeering and Extortion, 1998—2008: Code for organized crime convictions, also investigated by federal agents over an 11-year period, from the Bureau of Justice Statistics.
•Forgery and Counterfeiting, 1999—2008: Arrest numbers for producing or distributing fake money and goods over a 10-year period, from the FBI.
•Fraud, 1999—2008: Arrests for false statements or documents produced for personal gain over a 10-year period, from the FBI.
•Embezzlement, 1999—2008: Arrests for surreptitious theft of money over a 10-year period, from the FBI.
By using a decade’s worth of federal data, we were able to minimize changes in local law enforcement efficacy, though some flaws remain: local cases go undocumented, and the FBI data is self-reported by local law enforcement. When combined, however, the data provides a fairly deep look into which jurisdictions are uncovering the most corruption. We leveled the playing field by calculating the numbers on a per-100,000 people basis.
So, uh, how did your state do?
This seems to systematically understate corruption in states where that corruption comes from resource extraction or agribusiness companies.
Could be because this sort of corruption tends to be more entrenched(everybody is on the take so nobody turns anyone in) or a bias of the study.
Let’s see. Five of the top six are south of the Mason-Dixon line.
Coincidence?
That is the worst way possible to grade states on their corruption. It is all based on arrests and convictions. In the really bad states nobody gets arrested and certainly nobody get convicted.
I mean come on, NJ at only #21 and best of all IL at #47.
This isn’t a ranking of most corupt states it is a ranking of most effective anti-corruption law enforcement.
@GigG The rankings for NJ and IL are because in IL and NJ they don’t get caught.
There may be issues with the methodology of the list.
Arkansas (were I live) came in at 15th. I’d reckon it’d be a bit higher if Clinton’s adventures here ever came to light.
This list seems suspect to me. I dont know how it doesnt look more like #1 Illinois, #2 California, #3 New York, #4 Lousiana. Having lived in half of those hell holes, I can gaurantee to you that corruption is not only alive and well but rampant.
Repugs have always been and will always be the most corrupt. It’s a fact. Most of them are homosexual pedophiles as well.
I think they need to consider current events as well. The time frame covers disasters such as Katrina in which many folks were fraudulently making claims and so sure the results will be higher for folks convicted in those states. You have greater opportunity for wide spread fruad given the scope of the event. Also I agree that having the numbers shows more effective policing than actual corruption. Something to be said here with what they have but they need to go back in and fine tune results.
speaking of homosexual pedophiles, where is Benjamin?
Woo Hoo, Alabama’s not last for once… oh wait, darn.
how can they measure something like this? If it’s that obvious to be recorded and documented, why not throw these bastards in jail?
Maybe states like NJ, NY, and IL have fewer arrests and convictions because more of the people who enforce are also corrupt. Thus fewer scandals come to light as the money flows wider.
So–we all agree the study is invalid because we all know such and such state is more or less corrupt.
But “facts are facts.”
If you think the study is wrong (I do), how should it have been constructed to remove/overcome/manage its errors? That I can’t do, so I’m kinda left with thinking this survey is “the best we got” and should be used until something better comes along.
How much of our perceptions is based on where tv shows are filmed, history from 79 years ago, and the punch lines of comedians?
My theory correlating humidity with corruption stands.
ALASKA at 42??
HOW?
“Public Corruption: 2
Racketeering & Extortion: 51
Fraud Rank: 44
Forgery & Counterfeiting: 39
Embezzlement: 33
Recent Scandal: Until last year, Ted Stevens was an honored figure in Alaskan and American politics. He was Alaska’s senator since 1968 and the longest-serving Republican senator in history. But in 2008, he was indicted on seven counts of lying on his Senate financial disclosure forms. A week before the November election, he was found guilty on all seven counts and lost re-election by a 1.24% margin. His alleged corruption was trumped by the prosecutors in his case, however, as a federal judge appointed independent counsel to look into misconduct by the government lawyers who prosecuted the Senator, set aside Stevens’ guilty verdict and voided his indictment. “In nearly 25 years on the bench, I’ve never seen anything approaching the mishandling and misconduct that I’ve seen in this case,” said the District Justice.”
Basically, they prosecuted on “SAY SO” and no evidence/proof. of ANYTHING HAPPENING.
WE are talking about the land that HAS TONS of corp control, but fights BACK..
This is the location of BP saying OOPS we didnt maintain those pipes for the last 10 years and they went POP.
sargasso–so succinct. so clever. Your short form critique is admirable.
These people are simple minded incompetents.
DC should have been at the top of the list. The health care bill, TARP, and dozens of other bills make anything less than what Madoff got away with for a decade look like chump change and of course there is the question of why Madoff wasn’t caught a decade sooner, where the money went and who actually helped and benefited. Was this really the work of one or two people? I don’t think so. A lot of people were making big money off this.
Some of the tie ins of Gatner and others and the money transfers made to their freinds run into the billions. Said friends were also in the business of buying up bad notes/loans, bundling them, then selling them to others, and betting those purchases would go bad.
The Fed doesn’t even let anyone look at their books ever including Congress.
The Millennium Copyright Act is clearly the result of political pay offs to both parties.
I’m not sure what to call Fanny May and Freddie Mac other than on going disasters. They’ve lost according to my latest numbers 13,000,000,000 since the bailout. Nothing has been done or is being done to fix the situation.
Then we have ACORN. There is more than enough evidence that laws got broken all over the place but the FBI and Attorney General stayed out no matter what went down.
Some years ago it was correctly reported that the Department of the Interior had um, misplaced over a trillion dollars that should have gone to native Americans as compensation for resources taken from their lands. The money had been paid in then vanished.
I don’t think the situation has improved and the last I heard the people in charge only had a vague clue about what they were supposed to be paid. They are basically depending on the users telling them what is due them. Nobody has been charged with anything so according to the study nobody did anything wrong; business as usual as it were.
The highest number of arrests for corruption is not evidence that the greatest amount of crime was occurring at a location. It is evidence that the most crooks got arrested.
I will concede that TN does have a corruption problem but I also think we are doing a rather better job of arresting the crooks than say DC nor has anyone in our state stolen anything like the amount of money that gets shifted in DC on a daily bases.
bobo would you settle for one measure of corruption being how much public money is unaccounted for?
Our accounting people tend to be rather nasty minded. The government gets audited which is how a lot of people end up in jail. If it was your responsibility and you can’t demonstrate where the money went it’s your bleep on the line.
/myopia 101
This is obviously a rigged report..
For starters.. Washington D.C.should be first, on a list that is miles above the rest..then NY, NJ, Chicago, Florida and California..
-maybe concurrent with of course, -the cities that play host to the 12 regional federal reserve banks.
-after that, all the major seaports, harbors and rail hubs..
the rest…are amateurs
-s
#18–Deowll==you ask: “would you settle for one measure of corruption being how much public money is unaccounted for?” /// Yes. And those crimes sit waiting to be discovered for years. It always amazes me how many accountants will commit embezzlement as they know it is discoverable and are only taking the risk on how long it will take to come to light.
Bernie Madoff is just the absolute worst example of this. He actually got personally embarassed he got away with it for so long. I don’t know why he didn’t leave overnight with a few billion and set up in one of many nations without extradition. Silly old man==but maybe he correctly identified the bloodlust would be transfered to his family and friends if he left the country. Scandal that his whole clan is not in jail with him.
To your larger point about DC==its hard to find corruption when what you and I would see as corruption passes for “politics as usual.”
Corruption is NOT mainly the initial crime that injures people, it is the lack of prosecution by those who come after.
I could go on and on and on and on, but we are in agreement on the Chapter Headings.
I live in New Mexico, as does Eideard.
That state’s bad boy is Manny Aragon, who not only got busted in the Metro Courthouse construction scandal, but took down several notable politicos, including a former Albuquerque mayor, with him in that scandal. He worked with the others to pad the cost of building the new courthouse, and then planned to skim off the un-needed money. The Feds got wind of the scheme, and Manny will be in jail for awhile, hopefully with a cellmate named Spike.
http://www.abqjournal.com/news/breaking/apindictments03-29-07.htm
Your Mother said, on May 13th, 2010 at 10:12 am
Repugs have always been and will always be the most corrupt. It’s a fact. Most of them are homosexual pedophiles as well.
A fact? With a bogus opinion like that, I’m amazed you’ve managed to survive long enough to comment. You probably tap your shoes in the public men’s rooms. What a little troll.
Go get a job and contribute something to society. And quit dreaming about kissing Odumba’s butt.