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Across US states and Federal Judicial Districts there have been 19634 public corruption convictions over past ten years

Louisiana comes second on list of per capita convictions with 262 per 10000 inhabitants while Chicago's offenses ensure Illinois comes third with 166

Report from University of Chicago shed light on US cities and states with most public-sector corruption

Only in Kansas Maine and Montana legislative branches score less than 3

Michael Johnston is Charles A Dana Professor of Political Science at Colgate University Emeritus and Chairman of Advisory Board of Institute for Corruption Studies

Executive branches in these states score 4 or higher in both forms of corruption

Judicial branches in all states which elect judges via elections score 3 or higher

Kentucky and New York suffer from illegal and legal corruption

Louisiana scores 4 or higher in legal corruption in all branches of government

In more than half of states legal corruption is perceived very common or extremely common

These findings are consistent with comparative assessments of state corruption over years suggesting extent of corruption in state governments is not matter of contemporary personalities and events but result of deeper and lasting characteristics and influences

In Louisiana judges are elected via partisan elections in West Virginia they are elected via non-partisan elections

Executive and legislative branches in Arkansas Louisiana and Mississippi are perceived as corrupt with scores of 3 or higher

Corruption is perceived more common than illegal corruption in all branches of government

Oguzhan Dincer is Associate Professor of Economics at Illinois State University and Director of Institute for Corruption Studies

Connecticut Indiana Kansas Montana and Washington are least corrupt states followed by Maine Minnesota New Hampshire Vermont and Virginia

Perception scores should not be conceptualized as a measure of corruption but as a reflection of it

Interpret results from Delaware Hawaii Iowa Kansas Montana Nebraska and New Hampshire cautiously

Illegal corruption is defined as private gains by a government official in exchange for providing benefits

The author contacted close to 1000 reporters via email or phone