So crime rates are down a bit since the 90s -- do the current victims care?

Crime figures don't really mean much. They go down with bad weather and up with the full moon. If your area had a year that went from extremely low temperatures to heavy snow to flooding to an overtaxed power grid going down for a month, someone, somewhere is going to come up with the 'fact' that crime rate of those periods was down, causing an overall annual drop so it must be that things are looking up. In fact, the figures don't mean a thing.

Figures can show whatever a person wants them to show. Since government and business (and many individuals) have apparently lost all sense of right and wrong, they go with what looks good. If business (source of taxes) is down in their city or part of it, just change the unfavorable statistics a bit. Toss out bait and the victim will come.

Sue