No place in the United States has been more mired in public corruption than Chicago, one main reason Illinois is the third most corrupt state when considering the sheer number of corruption convictions, according to a report released Wednesday.Federal data shows the 1,531 convictions for public corruption from 1976 through 2010 in the Northern District of Illinois, the federal court district dominated by Chicago, were the most of any of the country's districts during that time.
The data has been collected in a new report from researchers at the University of Illinois at Chicago and the University of Illinois' Institute of Government and Public Affairs.
Since the 1970s, four of seven Illinois governors have
been convicted, along with 31 members of Chicago's city council. University of Illinois at Chicago professor Dick Simpson, who worked on the study, told CBS Chicago that corruption among public officials has cost the city $500 million.
"The two worst crime zones in Illinois are the governor's mansion ... and the city council chambers in Chicago," Simpson, a former Chicago alderman, told the AP. "No other state can match us."
In second was the Central District of California, where Los Angeles is located, with 1,275 convictions during the same 34-year period. The Southern District of New York, which includes Manhattan, was third with 1,202 convictions.- In numbers of public corruption convictions by state from 1976 to 2010, New York state led with 2,522; California was second with 2,345 and Illinois was third, with 1,828. No state had more per capita corruption convictions than Louisiana, which was trailed by Illinois, New York and Pennsylvania.
- Figures for the report were drawn from Justice Department data on convictions in the nation's 94 federal judicial districts. The report doesn't specify types of corruption, whether convictions were for fraud, bribery or other crimes.
Source: Agency
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