# Fortune ranks the 10 most Corrupt States. **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [June 22, 2014, 7:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fortune-ranks-the-10-most-corrupt-states/691379 "2014-06-22T19:27:43Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Shodan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9f8e36/32.png) [@Shodan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shodan)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2014, 1:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fortune-ranks-the-10-most-corrupt-states/691379/21 "2014-06-23T13:35:35Z")
The parameters of the study are kind of hard to understand - > [@](#): > > Researchers also found that spending in these states was different than their less corrupt counterparts. According to the report, “states with higher levels of corruption are likely to favor construction, salaries, borrowing, correction, and police protection at the expense of social sectors such as education, health and hospitals.” > > The paper explains that construction spending, especially on big infrastructure projects, is particularly susceptible to corruption because the quality of large, nonstandard projects are difficult for the public to gauge, while the industry is dominated by a few monopolistic firms. Corrupt states also tend to, for obvious reasons, simply have more and better paid public servants, including police and correctional officers. The researchers argue that the need for correctional officers is greater in corrupt places too because “the overall extent of corruption will be higher in states with higher numbers of convictions of public officials.” It seems like an odd assumption to think “this state spends a lot on construction and police, therefore it is corrupt”. I guess it matters how much they weight numbers of convictions over amount the state spends on prisons. I did a little Googling about South Dakota, and a lot of the complaints about it are not so much about how much corruption they have, but that they don’t have an ethics commission. I can see that as a reason they don’t have a lot of scandals known publicly, but I am reluctant to assume that it is any kind of proof that they do and are therefore #9 in corruption in the US. OTOH I can easily believe it about Mississippi and, especially, Louisiana. Wasn’t LA the place where they caught some representative with $90K in bribe money in his freezer, and everyone responded with a a deafening ho-hum? Regards, Shodan ---
**Author:** ![Diceman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/22d042/32.png) [@Diceman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diceman)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2014, 2:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fortune-ranks-the-10-most-corrupt-states/691379/22 "2014-06-23T14:29:23Z")
> [@Octarine](#): > > Yep. I was surprised not to see NY on the list, but then I realized that it’s all very quiet and under the table - our corruption is corrupt. Same for New Jersey. The whole damn state is run by the Mob. Including, apparently, the people who are supposed to be looking out for corruption. ETA: On further review, this is looking more like a list of The 10 Most Corrupt States Which Don’t Have Enough Political Clout to Keep Their Names Off This List. I mean, seriously, how else can you explain the fact that New York & New Jersey, two of the most famously and openly corrupt states in the country, are not included? ---
**Author:** ![Diceman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/22d042/32.png) [@Diceman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diceman)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2014, 2:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fortune-ranks-the-10-most-corrupt-states/691379/23 "2014-06-23T14:37:10Z")
ETA 2: Yeah, Michigan should probably be on the list, just due to the rampant corruption in Detroit. Fortunately, it looks like we’re trying to weed that out now. ---
**Author:** ![Kimballkid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/b5a626/32.png) [@Kimballkid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimballkid)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2014, 4:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fortune-ranks-the-10-most-corrupt-states/691379/24 "2014-06-23T16:30:42Z")
> [@Shodan](#): > > I did a little Googling about South Dakota, and a lot of the complaints about it are not so much about how much corruption they have, but that they don’t have an ethics commission. I can see that as a reason they don’t have a lot of scandals known publicly, but I am reluctant to assume that it is any kind of proof that they do and are therefore #9 in corruption in the US. Nitpick: SD is number 8. At least we rank in the top ten for something beside some ag production. I’ll have to pay more attention as I don’t have a clue as to why we would be so high. ---
**Author:** ![Spiderman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spiderman/32/230_2.png) [@Spiderman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spiderman)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2014, 5:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fortune-ranks-the-10-most-corrupt-states/691379/25 "2014-06-23T17:04:43Z")
> [@aceplace57](#): > > I noticed the study ended at 2008. Very odd because this article was just published June 10, 2014. This must be the reason that PA is only 5th. The ‘bonusgate’ scandal, which took out most of the leadership was after this. Currently, there’s the undercover investigation that had a handful of Philly politicians recorded taking money that the AG tried to squash. In the NE, if you ain’t corrupt, you’re not in office! ☹ ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2014, 5:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fortune-ranks-the-10-most-corrupt-states/691379/26 "2014-06-23T17:15:42Z")
> [@silenus](#): > > Alaska is due to oil money and Native affairs. Any time you put that much easy money in the hands of that few people, corruption **will** happen. Four or five state congress critters went to jail a few years ago, and Ted Stevens lost his Senator For Life status over some gifts. Oil company lobbyists were handing notes over the railing during sessions telling our elected officials how to vote on a variety of issues. When called on it by one of the more honest Senators, he was rounding shouted down by the very people who later went to prison. People leave office there and go directly to work for the oil industry as lobbyists. One thing Palin was not, was corrupt. Willfully ignorant, and little work ethic, yes. But crooked? No. ---
**Author:** ![astorian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ad7895/32.png) [@astorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astorian)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2014, 5:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fortune-ranks-the-10-most-corrupt-states/691379/27 "2014-06-23T17:19:31Z")
I’m most surprised that Rhode Island isn’t on the list. ---
**Author:** ![wevets](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e9a140/32.png) [@wevets](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wevets)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2014, 5:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fortune-ranks-the-10-most-corrupt-states/691379/28 "2014-06-23T17:32:58Z")
> [@Shodan](#): > > The parameters of the study are kind of hard to understand - > > It seems like an odd assumption to think “this state spends a lot on construction and police, therefore it is corrupt”. That’s not in the methodology section of the report, that’s in the “Empirical Findings” section of the report ([see pg.353](http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/puar.12212/pdf) - might be behind a paywall.) In other words, they used corruption conviction data to test the hypothesis that states that have more corruption will tend to spend more money on construction (see pg. 349,) they did not generate a list of corrupt states using construction spending. > [@Liu and Mikesell](#): > > The results presented in model III in table 7 show that real per capita state construction expenditures tend to be larger in states with higher levels of corruption, and the impact is statistically significant. This finding is consistent with the view that corrupt public officials increase expenditures on construction, expecting bribes from construction companies. See pg. 353 ---
**Author:** ![Count\_Blucher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c5a1d2/32.png) [@Count\_Blucher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Count_Blucher)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2014, 5:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fortune-ranks-the-10-most-corrupt-states/691379/29 "2014-06-23T17:37:30Z")
> [@Diceman](#): > > Same for New Jersey. The whole damn state is run by the Mob. Including, apparently, the people who are supposed to be looking out for corruption. > > ETA: On further review, this is looking more like a list of The 10 Most Corrupt States Which Don’t Have Enough Political Clout to Keep Their Names Off This List. > > I mean, seriously, how else can you explain the fact that New York & New Jersey, two of the most famously and openly corrupt states in the country, are not included? …from “Bridge-Gate” to “Poll-Gate”, the corruption is blatant, but everything will get silenced, shelved, or plain-old rug-swept until the nominee is determined to be or not be Christie. ---
**Author:** ![Diceman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/22d042/32.png) [@Diceman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diceman)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2014, 5:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fortune-ranks-the-10-most-corrupt-states/691379/30 "2014-06-23T17:39:35Z")
> [@wevets](#): > > That’s not in the methodology section of the report, that’s in the “Empirical Findings” section of the report ([see pg.353](http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/puar.12212/pdf) - might be behind a paywall.) > > In other words, they used corruption conviction data to test the hypothesis that states that have more corruption will tend to spend more money on construction (see pg. 349,) they did not generate a list of corrupt states using construction spending. > See pg. 353 So, they used corruption _conviction_ data? Doesn’t that mean that the states at the top of the list are the states that most actively fight corruption, and the states at the bottom are the ones that more-or-less shrug off corruption as “normal” (ie, the northeast)? ---
**Author:** ![wevets](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e9a140/32.png) [@wevets](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wevets)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2014, 5:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fortune-ranks-the-10-most-corrupt-states/691379/31 "2014-06-23T17:57:19Z")
> [@Diceman](#): > > So, they used corruption _conviction_ data? Doesn’t that mean that the states at the top of the list are the states that most actively fight corruption, and the states at the bottom are the ones that more-or-less shrug off corruption as “normal” (ie, the northeast)? It could be, but the authors don’t think the data bears that interpretation: > [@Liu and Mikesell](#): > > Regarding the first suspicion, the number of convictions should be highly associated with degrees of corruption. Meier and Holbrook (1992) and Glaeser and Saks (2006) explain that the state convict rankings match Americans’ general perceptions on state corruption by averaging them over the period 1976-2008[sup]5[/sup] The lower the ranking, the less corruption there is in the state. > > [snip] > > Regarding the second concern, [that prosecutorial or law enforcement effort might sway the conviction numbers] table 2 shows that these corruption indexes are not statistically related to the degree of federal prosecution, degree of law enforcement/slackness, or court resources. If the numbers of convictions were simply the result of prosecutors’ capacities, law enforcement/slackness, or court resources, the corruption indexes should be significantly correlated with at least one of the following variables: work hours of U.S. attorneys divided by state population (or by the number of public employees), number of federal judges per citizen (or per public employee), amount of district courts’ caseload per judge, or the amount of pending rates per judge. However, the table shows that none of these factors has a statistically significant association with our corruption convictions measure. The results imply that judicial resources, U.S. attorneys’ workloads, and enforcement/slackness do not determine the corruption conviction measure substantially. This provides confidence in the relevance and validity of our proxy variable for corruption. While I’m not 100% convinced by their explanation, I’ll note their data source can’t reflect corruption that doesn’t make it to the court system, but I’m not sure how one could realistically obtain data on corruption where no public accusation, much less conviction, has been made. So it could be you’re right, but a first approximation with subjective corruption indexes doesn’t reveal anything suspicious. ---
**Author:** ![wevets](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e9a140/32.png) [@wevets](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wevets)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2014, 6:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fortune-ranks-the-10-most-corrupt-states/691379/32 "2014-06-23T18:13:21Z")
Some interesting tidbits from the study in case anyone is interested: - New Jersey is listed as #31 out of 50 by index with population, #30 out of 50 by index with employment, so still in the highly-corrupt set of states even if not in the most-corrupt set of states. - New York is listed as #41 out of 50 by index with population, #39 out of 50 by index with employment, so by at least one measure, New York is in the top 10 most corrupt states. - The primary author on the paper is from the City University of Hong Kong, so it’s not clear that a lot of bias towards or against specific states is in play. The secondary author is from Indiana University, and Indiana doesn’t come out smelling of roses, but isn’t listed among the worst either. - The study doesn’t say why the conviction data only runs up to 2008 - which is a shame, I’d like to know why. On the other hand, they do have 11 years’ worth of data, which doesn’t seem like a bad start. ---
**Author:** ![JohnT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnt/32/15048_2.png) [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2014, 6:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fortune-ranks-the-10-most-corrupt-states/691379/33 "2014-06-23T18:35:11Z")
> [@aceplace57](#): > > AFAIK Arkansas had its first big corrupt politician last year. Arkansas Treasurer Martha Shoffner was accepting bribes to award state contracts. Just plain stupid and she’ll eventually get prison time. She’s already resigned and been replaced. Obviously you forgot how Bill and Hilary killed poor Vince Young, er, Vince Carter, er, Vince Foster to cover up Whitewater. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Shodan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9f8e36/32.png) [@Shodan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shodan)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2014, 7:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fortune-ranks-the-10-most-corrupt-states/691379/34 "2014-06-23T19:10:59Z")
> [@wevets](#): > > That’s not in the methodology section of the report, that’s in the “Empirical Findings” section of the report ([see pg.353](http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/puar.12212/pdf) - might be behind a paywall.) > > In other words, they used corruption conviction data to test the hypothesis that states that have more corruption will tend to spend more money on construction (see pg. 349,) they did not generate a list of corrupt states using construction spending. > See pg. 353 Hmm. That would correlate with another of their conclusions, which was that higher state spending overall correlated with greater corruption, either as a cause or as an effect. Or possibly both. Considering how much more the federal government spends than any state… Regards, Shodan ---
**Author:** ![Skammer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skammer/32/143_2.png) [@Skammer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skammer)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2014, 7:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fortune-ranks-the-10-most-corrupt-states/691379/35 "2014-06-23T19:36:56Z")
Number three?! Come on, who do I have to pay/fuck/appoint around here for Tennessee to move up a notch or two? ---
**Author:** ![LavenderBlue](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e95f7d/32.png) [@LavenderBlue](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LavenderBlue)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2014, 7:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fortune-ranks-the-10-most-corrupt-states/691379/36 "2014-06-23T19:53:03Z")
> [@mcgato](#): > > I’m baffled that New Jersey didn’t make the top 10. > [@Diceman](#): > > Same for New Jersey. The whole damn state is run by the Mob. Including, apparently, the people who are supposed to be looking out for corruption. > > ETA: On further review, this is looking more like a list of The 10 Most Corrupt States Which Don’t Have Enough Political Clout to Keep Their Names Off This List. > > I mean, seriously, how else can you explain the fact that New York & New Jersey, two of the most famously and openly corrupt states in the country, are not included? > [@Count\_Blucher](#): > > …from “Bridge-Gate” to “Poll-Gate”, the corruption is blatant, but everything will get silenced, shelved, or plain-old rug-swept until the nominee is determined to be or not be Christie. Seriously. How the fuck is NJ not on this list? And how the hell does anything take Christie seriously on anything after his repeated fuck-ups? ---
**Author:** ![Quimby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/22d042/32.png) [@Quimby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quimby)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2014, 8:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fortune-ranks-the-10-most-corrupt-states/691379/37 "2014-06-23T20:01:22Z")
NJ had Rabbis dragged away in handcuffs. The ASPCA (yes the animal police) is a paramilitary organization. There isn’t a level of government office that hasn’t been investigated for bribery…I guess they just ranked the other 49 states because NJ was just a given. ---
**Author:** ![Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skald_the_Rhymer)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2014, 8:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fortune-ranks-the-10-most-corrupt-states/691379/38 "2014-06-23T20:09:50Z")
I protest Tennessee’s low ranking. We’re way more corrupt than Lousisana. ---
**Author:** ![seal\_cleaner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e274bd/32.png) [@seal\_cleaner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/seal_cleaner)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2014, 12:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fortune-ranks-the-10-most-corrupt-states/691379/39 "2014-06-24T00:08:11Z")
> [@aceplace57](#): > > AFAIK Arkansas had its first big corrupt politician last year. Arkansas Treasurer Martha Shoffner was accepting bribes to award state contracts. Just plain stupid and she’ll eventually get prison time. She’s already resigned and been replaced. As an Arkie, I must protest and point to Hot Springs back in the day. It was Little Chicago. ---
**Author:** ![EPoch](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/f6c823/32.png) [@EPoch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EPoch)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2014, 3:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fortune-ranks-the-10-most-corrupt-states/691379/40 "2014-06-25T03:15:15Z")
> [@Wile\_E](#): > > Florida’s only number 10! _sniffs_ I’m so proud we’re not the worst, for once. Me too brother. 😃 At least we have some of the greatest Spring Break hotspots. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fortune-ranks-the-10-most-corrupt-states/691379.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fortune-ranks-the-10-most-corrupt-states/691379.md?page=3)