According to a report from the University of Illinois at Chicago, Atlanta, Georgia has been named the most corrupt city in the United States for the fourth consecutive year. This report, which utilizes data from the U.S. Department of Justice, calculates the corruption rate by dividing the number of public corruption convictions by the population of each state or city.
Between 1976 and 2019, Atlanta had 452 public corruption convictions, with an average annual corruption rate of 4.32 per 100,000 population. However, the report notes that these numbers are likely underestimates, as not all corruption cases are detected, reported, or prosecuted.
Contrarily, another report, also from the University of Illinois at Chicago, ranks Chicago, Illinois as America’s most corrupt city for the third year in a row.
This report, co-authored by Dick Simpson, a professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago, and others, is based on the analysis of public corruption statistics published by the U.S. Department of Justice.
The report incorporates data from 1976 to 2020 and uses a formula that compares the number of corruption convictions in each area with its population to create the ranking system.
It appears that there are conflicting reports about which city holds the title of the most corrupt city in America in 2023.
Given these discrepancies, it’s important to consider the methodologies and time frames of each report to understand why they may have arrived at different conclusions.
The variations could be due to different data sets, time periods considered, or methodologies used in calculating corruption rates.
It’s also noteworthy that such reports can only capture instances of corruption that have led to convictions, which means the actual extent of corruption could be higher.