Florida ranks number 4 on list of corrupt states, according to study

Florida ranks number four when it comes to corrupt states, according to researchers from the University of Illinois at Chicago and the University of Illinois Institute of Government and Public Affairs.

While the report titled "Chicago and Illinois: Leading the Pack in Corruption," zones in on Illinois as the most corrupt district in the U.S., it also looked at all 50 states when it comes to public-corruption conviction statistics from the country's 94 federal judicial districts.

A team of professors and students gathered figures for the report from the recently released 2010 public corruption statistics and data since 1976 from the U.S. Department of Justice's Public Integrity Section.

Between the years 1976 and 2010, Florida had 1762 federal public corruption convictions, averaging to 49 each year in that time period.

However, when factoring in each state's population, the Sunshine State's ranking actually falls to number eight.

Broken down by individual judicial districts, the Miami area ranked fifth on that list.

Here are the state rankings:

Total Federal Public Corruption Convictions by State - 1976-2010

1. New York
2. California
3. Illinois
4. Florida
5. Pennsylvania
6. Texas
7. Ohio
8. District of Columbia
9. New Jersey
10. Louisiana

Federal Public Corruption Convictions by State per Capita 1976-2010

1. District of Columbia
2. Louisiana
3. Illinois
4. New York
5. Pennsylvania
6. Ohio
7. New Jersey
8. Florida
9. California
10. Texas

Federal Public Corruption Convictions by Judicial District 1976-2010

1. Illinois-Northern (Chicago)
2. California-Central (Los Angeles)
3. New York-Southern (Manhattan)
4. District of Columbia
5. Florida-Southern (Miami)
6. New Jersey (Newark)
7. Ohio-Northern (Cleveland)
8. Pennsylvania-Eastern (Philadelphia)
9. Virginia-Eastern (Richmond)
10. New York-Eastern (Brooklyn)

The full report is available online at www.uic.edu/depts/pols/ChicagoPolitics/leadingthepack.pdf .

A website is available to the public designed to help government agencies, the media and private citizens understand Florida’s Open Government and Public Records laws.

You can check it out at http://www.myflsunshine.com/ .