Since 1995, Scranton has remained the largest city in Pennsylvania that has failed to submit crime statistics to the state -- an omission that has cost the city federal crime-fighting dollars.
But year-to-date statistics have now been submitted to the state police and previous years' data is being compiled for the state's Uniform Crime Reporting System.
Providing those statistics puts Scranton back in the running for additional crime-fighting funds and gives residents a picture of crime in the city.
The Tribune computed the crime rate per 100,000 residents because that is the standard way of comparing cities' crime rates.
One of the more serious crimes included in Scranton's statistics is forcible rape. There have been 18 forcible rapes or 23.56 per 100,000 residents so far this year.
One police official and the Women's Resource Center director give different interpretations of what those numbers represent.
As of Tuesday, Detective Capt. Ted Maus said, 24 rapes have been reported in the city this year. Five have resulted in ar- rests and 11 are still under investigation. The remaining seven cases were closed for various reasons.
Carbondale reported one forcible rape for a rate of 10 per 100,000 people.
But the police rape statistics may understate the problem. Peg Ruddy, executive director of the Women's Resource Center, estimated that police are only notified of one in every 10 sexual assaults.
"Our experience is that because sexual violence is a crime where the behavior of the victim is scrutinized, it really does hinder victims coming forward," Ms. Ruddy said.
Scranton, which is similar in size to both Reading and Bethlehem, has a murder rate of 1.3 per 100,000 residents -- far below Bethlehem's 4.2 and Reading's 4.9. Scranton's armed robbery rate is 9.1, vs. 71.4 in Reading and 16.8 in Bethlehem.
Among local municipalities, vandalism is the most prevalent property crime with 508 reported incidents in Scranton. Carbondale has 64 cases and Hazleton has 79.
There is a higher risk of car theft in Carbondale, where the rate is slightly more than 100 per 100,000, compared to Scranton at 73 or Hazleton at 60, both per 100,000 people.
While illegal drugs are a problem, legal drugs -- especially alcohol -- take up more police time.
The rate of driving under the influence is 106 incidents per 100,000 in Scranton; drunkenness is 237 per 100,000, and there are 86 liquor law violations per 100,000.
There were 389 "offenses against family and children" this year to date in Scranton or more than 509 incidents for every 100,000 people.
The 2001 year-to-date numbers for city crime are up to date, according to Lt. Kevin Murphy, who handles the data for the Scranton Police Department. Data for the previous years is incomplete and is still being updated, so a true year-to-year comparison is not yet possible.
The city said last year it was unable to provide its 1998 figures because of what police called a glitch in the Lackawanna County computer system.
The city will now qualify for an unspecified amount of funding to fight crime. The city collected $47,042 in federal funding in 1996, based on crime data from the early 1990s. Last year, it got nothing.
All the information submitted thus far is available on the state police Web site at www:psp.state.pa.us.
