It's my understanding that 1962 was the first year that a crime rate was established and made public. The problem is that the measure of what goes into the crime rate has changed over the years, so it does become difficult to make comparisons from one decade to the previous. But it's really the best we do have.
In terms of the victimization studies, which have been done for almost as long, we see the same thing. We see an increased number of people purporting victimization as time goes on, compared to the 1960s.