Apart from violent crime from strangers which has remained static. This seems to be what ever statistical analysis has shown, but people still seem to be convinced it's rising.

Weird. I wonder if it's just that you don't experience much crime as a kid and as you grow older you experience more total crime and so think of it as getting worse. The Labour guy on Today reckoned it was down to the Tory manifesto claiming crime was rising, which is a bit convenient. On the other hand that means the Tory manifesto is blatantly lying. Interesting...