Jackson Free Press

I saw this press release a few months ago and thought that this would be a good time to share it. (Go here for the actual Justice Department report.)

Louisiana (1), Mississippi (2), Kentucky (3), Alabama (4) and Ohio (5) are the top five most corrupt states in the country, according to the analysis....Corporate Crime Reporter looked at the 35 most populous states in the nation. (The fifteen states with population of under two million were not included in the analysis.)

The ranking is based on data from the Justice Department's Public Integrity Section's 2006 report – which was made public just last week.

The 2006 Justice Department report contains a compilation of all federal corruption convictions by state over the past decade.

"We added up the total convictions for each state from 1997 to 2006," [Russell] Mokhiber said. "We then calculated a corruption rate for each state, which we defined as the total number of public corruption convictions from 1997 to 2006 per 100,000 residents."

However, I wonder how reliable this report is since they studied 35 states instead of all 50. That's not the only thing, though:

"The Justice Department is reporting only public corruption convictions that result from a federal prosecution," Mokhiber said. "Convictions that result from a prosecution pursued by state district attorneys or attorneys general, for example, are not included in the Justice Department statistics. But the vast majority of public corruption prosecutions – perhaps as many as 80 percent – are brought by federal officials."

"Also, public officials in any given state can be corrupt to the core, and if a federal prosecutor doesn't have the resources or the sheer political will to bring the case and win a conviction, the public corruption will not be reflected in the Justice Department's data set," Mokhiber said.

Is the report reliable in any way? What do you think?

Previous Comments

ID

116641

Comment

I believe we're largely corrupt. The saga is unfolding!

Author

Ray Carter

Date

2008-01-29T10:06:50-06:00

ID

116642

Comment

Yes, we have corruption, but I'm wondering about the margin of error of the report. How accurate is it since corruption cases can be underreported?

Author

LatashaWillis

Date

2008-01-29T11:25:40-06:00

ID

116643

Comment

We cannot depend upon federal cases (or State cases, either, for that matter) as an accurate measure, since prosecution can be selective and ideologically based. "We" are gonna get "them." I recall you reported an interesting case of that in the Paul Minor story. The really interesting story of the corruption cases against county supervisors (1980s?) was never a federal case, but it is a mighty provocative example and measure of the State of Mississippi's problem.

Author

footsy

Date

2008-01-29T13:45:40-06:00

ID

116644

Comment

LW, Thanks for the heads up on the report, but I beg you not to stress over the "margin of error". Use your common sense and come back with the clear and unadulterated conclusion, that we have more than our share of corruption in MS when compared, not to the other 49, but when compared to what we Mississipians want as citizens. The old "margin or error doubt" is a tactic used by the Republicans (global warming) and the cigarette industry and the food cloning industry to prevent citizens from taking action. It seems a professor somewhere wrote a thesis on influencing public opinion and action when you represent a losing cause. You don't argue against the facts, you promote and propogate a "contrived contoversy" around the facts. In other words you find, or pay, a small number of "experts" to express doubts about the conclusiveness of the facts. You know the drill , "some scientists don't agree that global warming is caused by human activity", "there is no conclusive proof that cigartette smoking causes cancer", "we quote a new study (which we funded by the way) that draws doubt into the previously found cconclusions. In the words of the King of Siam in the musical "The King and I" When I was a boy. World a simpler spot. What was so was so What was not was not. Now I am a man World has changed a lot. Some things nearly so Others nearly not Very often find confusion In conclusion I concluded long ag0.

Author

FrankMickens

Date

2008-01-29T14:20:17-06:00

ID

116645

Comment

The old "margin or error doubt" is a tactic used by the Republicans (global warming) and the cigarette industry and the food cloning industry to prevent citizens from taking action. Wow, I just mentioned margin of error because I learned about it in statistics class.

Author

LatashaWillis

Date

2008-01-29T14:25:24-06:00

ID

116646

Comment

Ain't education a wonderful thing!!! Many kudos for taking on the challenge!

Author

FrankMickens

Date

2008-01-29T14:28:05-06:00