BOSTON (AP) – The city’s surging murder rate in 2005, which grabbed national headlines when it hit a 10-year high, stopped at 75.

The final 2005 homicide was a 26-year-old man who was shot to death Dec. 28 in Roxbury – one of a handful of city neighborhoods plagued by rising violence.

While overall crime in Boston dipped last year, violence increased.

Police Commissioner Kathleen O’Toole is scheduled to address the spike at a news conference Tuesday. She plans to discuss the department’s arrest rate in murder cases, which is at a 10-year low. Out of 75 murders, police have either made an arrest or identified a suspect in 22, said Officer Michael McCarthy.

Crime in Boston dipped by 7 percent through Dec. 28 compared to 2004, according to police statistics. The drop is reflected in the crime index, which tracks offenses in seven categories, ranging from murder to theft.

The decline is attributed to a 16 percent decrease in vehicle thefts and an 11 percent reduction in larcenies.

While property crime in Boston slid, violent crime rose. In 2005, there were 5 percent more rapes, 7 percent more aggravated assaults and almost 23 percent more murders.

Killings peaked in Boston at 152 in 1990, and dropped to a low of 31 in 1999. The 75 murders last year were the most since 1995, when there were 96.

Criminologists blame the rise on a confluence of factors, including a demographic glut of teenagers and young adults, cutbacks to youth programs and an unrealistically low murder rate in the late 1990s.

Other major cities, including Baltimore and Philadelphia, also had a surge in murders in 2005. New York City, on the other hand, had its lowest number of homicides in 40 years.