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A new think tank analysis shows that public corruption is a key issue in the United States and is most common in state and local governments with larger bureaucrats and higher regulations.
The Libertarian Cato Institute said it analyzed Justice Department data on public corruption convictions in the country’s 94 federal judicial districts and measured the average annual number of convictions per 100,000 people from 2004 to 2023.
“The data show that some of the most corrupted places on this scale are consistent with their reputation,” the authors of the Cato analysis write.
Washington, DC outperforms the rankings with a total of 469 convictions and an annual conviction rate of 3.49 over the nearly 20-year period, according to a Cato report.
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“There is a huge number of federal employees in the Legislative and Executive Office, and there are many opportunities for grafts,” the report said.
The Eastern District of Louisiana, including New Orleans, ranks fourth on Cato’s list with a total of 430 convictions over this period, with an annual conviction rate of 1.29.
“New Orleans has long been infamous for state and local corruption,” the report said.
The Eastern Louisiana district, including New Orleans, was the fourth-highest number of public corruption convictions between 2004 and 2023, according to Justice Department data analyzed by the Cato Institute. (istock)
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CATO analysis found that New Hampshire had the lowest public corruption due to this indicator, with a 13 convictions and an annual conviction rate of .05 over the period. Kato called it “the most free state in the country with one of the smallest governments.”
New Hampshire was ranked lowest on the Cato Institute’s public corruption indicators. (Joe Sohm/Visions of America/Universal Images Group, Getty Images, file)
Kato said “large governments with more spending and regulations create more opportunities for bribery and embezzlement.”
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However, the think tank noted that some academic studies suggest other reasons for the difference in state and urban corruption, such as different cultures, education levels, and poverty rates.
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