Louisiana is the most corrupt state in the nation. That’s according to an analysis of government data released today by Corporate Crime Reporter. 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. Rounding out the top ten are Illinois (6), Pennsylvania (7), Florida (8), New Jersey (9), and New York (10).

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 [pdf file] – 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,” 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.”

Mokhiber warned that the study has its limitations. “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.