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Professor Kristina Murphy

Fellow

  • Bio/Profile
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  • Kristina Murphy is an Australian Research Council Future Fellow and Professor of Criminology at Griffith University. She is affiliated with both the School of Criminology & Criminal Justice, and the Griffith Criminology Institute at Griffith. She joined Griffith University in 2011 as an Associate Professor having previously worked at the Alfred Deakin Institute at Deakin University, and the Regulatory Institutions Network (RegNet) at the Australian National University. Murphy received her PhD in psychology from the Australian National University in 2002. In 2022 she was identified in the Australian's Top Researcher Award as Australia's leading criminology scholar (based on number of cites to her work in the preceding 5 year period). Murphy’s research integrates social psychological theory with criminology theories to understand why people defy or comply with authorities and their rules and regulations. Murphy is widely recognised for her research on procedural justice. Procedural justice refers to the fairness of treatment and decision-making received from authorities. She posits that when authorities are seen to be procedurally just, citizens will perceive the authority as more legitimate, will trust the authority more, and will be more willing to engage and voluntarily comply with the authority. Murphy has studied procedural justice across many regulatory contexts, including policing, taxation, public health and environmental regulation. She has applied her work to study: (a) public defiance to Government measures to stem the spread of the COVID-19 virus; (b) to understand Muslims' willingness to engage with police in collaborative counter-terrorism approaches; (c) to understand why immigrants and ethnic minorities distrust and disengage from police; and (d) to explain how taxpayers respond to punishment from tax authorities. She is particularly interested in studying the contexts and conditions that render procedural justice more or less effective. Murphy’s recent research centres on the role of procedural justice policing in fostering immigrant and ethnic minorities' trust in police, and how it can be used effectively in the fight against terrorism. Murphy has been awarded numerous grants and consultancies to pursue this research. Most recently she was awarded close to AUD$1 million to examine how police can strengthen relationships with Australia's Muslim community for the purpose of preventing terrorism. Murphy is a Member of the Editorial Board of the following journals: Policing and Society; Journal of Experimental Criminology; Race and Justice; and Current Issues in Criminal Justice.