Because of Philadelphia's poor record, the city's seven neighborhood-based victim-services agencies have taken a hit. They get less federal funding under a formula that rewards performance.
Philadelphia also lagged far behind other counties in collecting the $35 fee for the state's victim-compensation fund.
The courts passed on to the fund just 64 percent of what Philadelphia offenders owed. In the rest of the state, 81 percent of offenders paid up.
Only Allegheny County, home of Pittsburgh, did worse.
Ed Katz, manager of the state victim-compensation program, said that his staff had never discussed Philadelphia's poor performance with city court officials and that he couldn't explain why the city system lagged.
"I don't know," he said. "I don't know why Philadelphia or any county would be less."
Robert J. Malvestuto, chief of the probation department, and other court officials seemed unfamiliar with the city's rankings. The listing is put out by the state Office of Victims' Services.
"We are working diligently," Malvestuto said. "We emphasize strictly every condition of probation, collections being one."
In recent years, administrators of the Victims Compensation Assistance Program have steadily increased the number of people helped, sped up payments, and improved public outreach. Still, the program assisted only 5,600 victims last year, paying them an average of about $3,000 each - in a state in which almost 50,000 residents were victims of serious violent crime.
Through concerted advertising campaigns - including a $275,000 drive this year - the program's managers have worked hard to raise its profile.
