The Most Corrupt States?

I'm not sure what to make of this map from USA today that supposedly shows the level of corruption of the states in this country.

The thing is, they base their claims simply on convictions of "public corruption convictions" per 100,000 residents. There's no way of knowing which states have tougher laws regarding corruption, court procedure that makes it easier to convict, or maybe just some states that are more aggressive in rooting out corruption in government.

As the story below the map suggests, if a state is more aggressive in rooting out corruption than its neighbors, it might well be considered more corrupt on the map because they have a higher conviction rate.

Still, nice to know that none of our states are alone in political corruption, isn't it?