If you had to pick the most corrupt state in America, what would you choose? New Jersey, home of Bridgegate? Louisiana, the traditional home of backroom deals? Washington, DC? (Wait, that's not a state, but would certainly be right up there, wouldn't it?)

It turns out those perceptions aren't always correct. A new study conducted by Harvard's Edmond J. Safra Center for Ethics shows there are collection of states that are considered the most corrupt but it may not be the ones that immediately come to mind.

Can you guess which state showed up high on the list? That would be Alabama, of course.

The 2014 study looked at both illegal corruption, defined as private gains such as cash or gift in exchange for specific benefits, and legal corruption, that is, political gains through campaign contributions or endorsements by a government official in return to providing benefits for a private individual.

The first type is a more obvious type of corruption and can land you in jail. The second type, while legal in the strictest sense, can be a bigger threat.

"According to several surveys, a large majority of Americans, both liberals and conservatives, think that donations to super PACs, for example, by corporations, unions, and individuals corrupt the government," the study notes.

The authors relied on rankings provided by reporters in each state, with each participant ranking how prevalent they thought corruption was in their state.

In the executive branch, respondents said illegal and legal corruption were "moderately common." In the legislative branch, illegal corruption was seen as very common - the next to highest category - while legal corruption fell into the most prevalent category - extremely common. The judicial branch scored the best - illegal corruption was ranked only slightly common - and legal corruption was moderately common.

Overall, Alabama ranked fourth in illegal corruption, ahead of places like Illinois, New Jersey, Florida and Texas. Alabama was behind only Arizona, California and Kentucky. The least-corrupt states were Wymoming, Maryland and Hawaii.

For legal corruption, Alabama was ranked as sixth worst, behind Kentucky, Illinois, Nevada, Mississippi and New Jersey. Others landing spots on the hall of shame were New Mexico, New York, Georgia, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. Least legally corrupt were Tennessee, Idaho and South Dakota. Louisiana did not submit any info.

So what does the study show us? Oguzhan Dincer and Michael Johnston, who conducted the research, said it shows while corruption is not endemic to America as it is in several other countries, "it does exist."

"Understanding the causes and the consequences of corruption and designing the policies in the fight against it starts with measuring corruption itself," they said.