* UIC Political Science Department chief Dick Simpson released a study earlier this year called “Chicago and Illinois, Leading the Pack in Corruption.” Simpson’s study ranked Chicago and Illinois as the most corrupt places in the nation. But a group called Integrity Florida has released a new study that only uses the last ten years of information, and that examination showed Florida was on top…
In February 2012, the University of Illinois at Chicago Department of Political Science and the Illinois Integrity Initiative of the University of Illinois’ Institute for Government and Public Affairs released the report “Chicago and Illinois, Leading the Pack in Corruption.”
While that publication indicated that Florida was the fourth most corrupt state in the nation, the U.S.Department of Justice data examined was from 1976-2010. In the modern era (2000-2010), there has been an upward trend towards more federal public corruption convictions in Florida. Florida was the top state for federal public corruption convictions five times since 1999 (1999, 2000,2001, 2004 and 2006).
The state’s rapid rise to the top position in the nation in five of the last twelve years of available data provides new evidence that reforms are needed to reduce corruption in the Sunshine State.
The only states that came close to Florida’s record during the modern era were Texas and California (Texas in 2008, 2009 and 2010; California in 2003, 2005 and 2007).
2010 is the most recent data set of federal public corruption convictions from the U.S. Department of Justice.
* The rankings…
- John A Logan - Friday, Jun 8, 12 @ 10:11 am:
Rejoice! Only the seventh most corrupt state in the nation!
- Anyone Remember? - Friday, Jun 8, 12 @ 10:12 am:
Has anyone “massaged” the data to reflect “convictions per 1,000 population” or something similar? For example, in 2010 Illinois had 52 and California had 44. However, as California has roughly 3 times Illinois’ population, Illinois should have been at 15 or California at 156 to be “equal” on a per capita basis.
- Thomas - Friday, Jun 8, 12 @ 10:14 am:
All big states at the top…shouldn’t they compile the rankings on a per-capita basis?
- Anon - Friday, Jun 8, 12 @ 10:14 am:
woohoo!! We’re not #1! We’re not #1!
- Angry Republican - Friday, Jun 8, 12 @ 10:21 am:
No surprise with this list; Florida, Texas, and California are major gateways for drugs and illegal immigrants into the US.
- justbabs - Friday, Jun 8, 12 @ 10:22 am:
Ohio and Pennsylvania are ahead of us. Poor Dick Simpson, his musings drop in importance with each state that is worse than us.
- Regular Reader - Friday, Jun 8, 12 @ 10:22 am:
The chart doesn’t say anything because it’s not compiled on a per-capita basis.
Even with per-capita, I wouldn’t read too much into it. The chart assumes all U.S. Attorneys are equally diligent at pursuing crime and that there’s no corruption in the DOJ or in reporting the numbers.
- Nearly Normal - Friday, Jun 8, 12 @ 10:25 am:
I saw similar info back when Blago was indicted. It stated then that Florida had the most public officials indicted of all the states. That took the sting out since at the time I was in Florida for a visit with friends. When I got razzed about Blago I could come back with the info on the most public officials indicted.
Still, one must be reminded that the stats are based on what is known and ya gotta wonder about the unknown that has been so carefully hidden.
I am surprised that New Jersey is so low on the chart.
- reformer - Friday, Jun 8, 12 @ 10:27 am:
It’s nice to see that we’re not number 1 anymore. Kass will be disappointed!
- RocItMan - Friday, Jun 8, 12 @ 10:31 am:
Where’s Wyoming? No corruption?
- Ray del Camino - Friday, Jun 8, 12 @ 10:34 am:
Wyo–Not just no corruption, no people!
- Jimbo - Friday, Jun 8, 12 @ 10:37 am:
This certainly doesn’t consider Illinois’s public tolerance and acceptance of corrupt behavior that furthers development of corruption.We still have ares like Lennie Small’s old stomping grounds that honor corruption.And how many other states have TWO governors in penal institutions?
- x ace - Friday, Jun 8, 12 @ 10:38 am:
Success Still Possible for IL - enact the Gaming Bill without Ethics Provisions and Contribution Ban and Illinois might soon be # 1 on everybody’s list.
- Anon - Friday, Jun 8, 12 @ 10:40 am:
How long until Blago somehow releases a statement from prison taking credit for this?
- Shore - Friday, Jun 8, 12 @ 10:42 am:
There’s numbers and then there’s impact. 45 convictions for city council members is not the same thing as the psychological and political blow of having 2 Governors in a row go to jail. 3 gubernatorial elections were devoted in Illinois to the issue of corruption instead of jobs or education or other stuff because people couldn’t behave themselves.
- mark walker - Friday, Jun 8, 12 @ 10:45 am:
The same chart could be used with another headline: Florida Has Most Effective Anti-Corruption Prosecutors, Illinois Falls to Fifth
@AngryRepub: What any of this has to do with illegal immigration or drugs, is beyond me. Unless those are the source of every imaginable problem.
- frustrated GOP - Friday, Jun 8, 12 @ 10:46 am:
Wait, look at the bottom, how do you have that few convictions, unless everyone is “In on it” Just saying.
I do think there needs to be a rating of per public employees, not per cap.
they might be close to the same but what is the convection of those in the public employee subset?
- Shore - Friday, Jun 8, 12 @ 10:52 am:
-I thought there were 5 people in guam-anyone want to explain how they have so many convictions?
-Are the dc numbers inclusive of federal beuracrats that get prosecuted there like abramoff?
-I’m impressed with minnesota, they get one senator ranked the worst in the country by time-dayton, a governor who was a wwf wrestler and a former snl comedian-and little corruption. Maybe Illinois should start recruiting second city alumni to run for office to stem the corruption issue.
- muon - Friday, Jun 8, 12 @ 10:55 am:
On a per capita basis it looks like DC is the kingpin of corruption. They have about 1/20 of Illinois’ population so they have about 15 times the corruption rate of Illinois. By comparison the corruption rates in Illinois and Florida are actually quite similar.
- CircularFiringSquad - Friday, Jun 8, 12 @ 10:56 am:
We have never been first.
The Simpson “research” is the worst academic product ever produced ( with the possible exception of the guy who thought the distance betwwen a state’s big city and capitol had something to do with it).
Simpson has to go back to ‘76 to get a big enough universe to excite the media — 1,000 or 1,500 depending on which version of his “study” you believe.
The other factor is that when you include state, county,federal, and local officials and employees and vendors this is clearly a pool of at least 1-2 million.
It includes SOS counter clerks suburban cops taking traffic bribes, etc.
Simpson himself admits he and his state funded “researchers” never went inside the out of state data to see how many petty crimes are lumped in.
- NIref - Friday, Jun 8, 12 @ 10:57 am:
I pull my hair out every time I see corruption measured this way. Using the number of federal convictions is unreliable and does not measure an actual level of corruption. What does this actually measure? Possibly prosecutorial effectiveness, but it actually speaks to how effective corrupt politicians are. The most effective ones don’t get caught and don’t get prosectured. The measure also fails in that it does not account for actual arrests (which are only accusations with probable cause).
In the current academic research on corruption, using the number of convictions is widely rejected as an effective indicator of actual corruption.
What are the problems with measuring corruption?
Well, first there is the definition. Under the Simpson et al. and Integrity Florida reports, only acts defined as criminal are counted. And only those where people are caught. This misses any act that occurs outside a narrow definition of legality and goes unnoticed. This also fails to include legal acts that are considered corrupt. Take, for example, the Berrios office. Family members were given jobs upon taking office. Legal? Yes. Ethical? Probably not. Corrupt? Likely.
The second problem with measuring corruption is the actual measurement. How do you measure? Bribes, generally, do not come with receipts. If only a certain act is measured, then that necessarily precludes other acts.
Seriously, why do reports like this get played up when they have such suspect theoretical backing?
- Rich Miller - Friday, Jun 8, 12 @ 10:58 am:
===Seriously, why do reports like this get played up===
The post is entitled “Fun with numbers,” more than just implying that none of this should be taken all too seriously.
- amalia - Friday, Jun 8, 12 @ 11:14 am:
maybe Florida is counting in all the cases in the Carl Hiaasen books. Rich Miller should take a turn at some Illinois corruption fiction. there are some pretty swampy areas in S. Il!
- stats checker - Friday, Jun 8, 12 @ 11:58 am:
So this is the ranking of states with politicians dumb enough to get caught.
- downstate commissioner - Friday, Jun 8, 12 @ 12:11 pm:
So what are IL politicians planning to do to get back on top??
- Angry Republican - Friday, Jun 8, 12 @ 12:16 pm:
@- mark walker
Bribery falls under the general category of corruption, and smugglers have been known to bribe people to look the other way.
- Cook County Commoner - Friday, Jun 8, 12 @ 12:37 pm:
This is an affront to every Illinois citizen. We have so little to be proud of. Besides the study’s failure to calculate on a per capita basis, Illinois should have leaped to the top of the charts for having two governors in stir at the same time. And did Illinois’ proud history of bipartisan corruption get sufficient attention? And what about the broad array of corruption from taking a cashed stuffed envelopes to trying to shake down Hollywood and hospitals. And amidst all this, installing one of our very own in the White House must be worth something. This state is going to pot. Come to think about it, pot may be our fiscal salvation along with gambling. And embracing vice to solve corruption induced disintegration certainly should carry Illinois over the top.
- He Makes Ryan Look Like a Saint - Friday, Jun 8, 12 @ 12:52 pm:
So if South of I80 is taken out of the equation would we still be #1
- Dave V - Friday, Jun 8, 12 @ 1:50 pm:
@angry republican
On this report, bribery only counts if there is a conviction. You could actually change the title of the chart to successful enforcement actions on political corruption and we all would look great.
I think it is also funny that including Florida’s record during the late seventies and early eighties would have made it appear less corrupt than Illinois.
- wordslinger - Friday, Jun 8, 12 @ 2:14 pm:
–No surprise with this list; Florida, Texas, and California are major gateways for drugs and illegal immigrants into the US. –
How does that translate into federal public corruption convictions?
By that logic, wouldn’t Arizona be at the top of the heap?
And how about New Mexico? It didn’t make the list.
- reformer - Friday, Jun 8, 12 @ 2:55 pm:
AngryRepub
The connection between political corruption and illegal immigration is what exactly? Can you cite any IL pols who have been bribed by illegal immigrants?