I’m reading the autobiography of a Chicago detective from 1901. Demographics and crimes are almost identical to today (swap crack pipes for opium pipes and use a more polite term for the descendants of slaves). If anything the crime was even worse than today. Chicago had about 700,000 residents and 90,000 arrests per year according to his book.
Worse than today, eh? I’d certainly like to see it get better in the future from where we are today.