Firstly, there was less than 900 homicides in 2005/6. The way the media goes on, I believe that the majority of people think it is in the thousands. (in fact look at Ludwigs answer to you here:
http://www.theanswerbank.co.uk/News/Question38 0997-2.html )
I agree that crime has gone up - and yes Mammar it is a sad reflection of society.
From the figures from AOG's link - the number of homicides went from 6.3 to 10.3 between 1955 and 1975 a percentage increase of over 60%, but from 1975 - 1997 (latest figures), the percentage increase was less than 40% - so (percentage increase wise) the mid 50s to 70s time was worse!
I suppose another interesting thing about media coverage is of course when people see what they want to see - by reading the Daily Mail and similar, you may think that there is lots of black on black crime, where as it is not - as shown in this question:
http://www.theanswerbank.co.uk/News/Question38 0997.html