Building trust in authority through procedural justice

Professor Kristina Murphy’s research has influenced policy and professional practice across a number of regulatory contexts including taxation, policing, counterterrorism and governance in Australia and internationally. Her work integrates psychological, criminological and socio-legal theories to better understand why people trust authorities, and why they comply with or defy authorities or their rules and regulations.

Her research outputs have been referenced or applied across 199 policy documents by 86 organisations across 26 countries, including citations by the Parliament of Australia, the United Kingdom’s Parliament Select Committee and the Office of the European Union.* They are also frequently referenced by intergovernmental organisations, particularly the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD, 28 citing policy documents).

Taxation and procedural justice

Early in her career, Professor Murphy became internationally recognised for applying procedural justice to understand taxpayer behaviour and compliance. During research conducted for the Australian Taxation Office (ATO), she engaged with taxpayers affected by enforcement actions, revealing that perceptions of unfair treatment, lack of voice, and disrespect from authorities during the enforcement process could lead to disengagement and further non-compliance.

The ATO acted on the research’s recommendations, including by developing procedurally just enforcement letters for tax offenders, and cited the work in its 2007 ‘Review for measuring compliance effectiveness'. Professor Murphy continues to provide expert advice related to this research to government bodies, including the Dutch Tax Authority in 2022.

One of her related publications, ‘The role of trust in nurturing compliance: a study of accused tax avoiders’ (2004) continues to be cited in policy (50 policy documents across 2008 – 2022) particularly by international governments (Belgium, Latvia, Ireland, Korea, United Kingdom) and intergovernmental organisations (OECD, World Bank and Inter-American Development Bank).

Another publication, ‘Regulating more effectively: the relationship between procedural justice, legitimacy, and tax non-compliance’, published in 2005, continues to have an impact on policy as recent as 2024 with 27 policy references since 2008.

Transforming policing and corrections practice through procedural justice

Building on this foundation, Professor Murphy was among the first Australian researchers to apply procedural justice theory to policing. This work has since had extraordinary scholarly impact, with researchers around the world replicating her work in their own countries.

Since the mid-2000s, her research has examined how police interactions, particularly with ethnic minority, immigrant, and Muslim communities, shape trust, legitimacy, and cooperation.

Using large‑scale surveys to explore peoples’ perceptions of policing and their related behaviours, her work demonstrates that policing grounded in fairness, respect, and voice is more effective at building police legitimacy than coercive approaches. This research has informed evidence‑based strategies to improve police communication and the fair treatment of citizens that enhance legitimacy and encourage people to obey police officers and the law.

In 2016, the implementation of procedural justice in policing was reported as one of the top 10 innovations in Australian policing over the past 30 years (Ten key developments in modern policing: An Australian perspective), indicating that Professor Murphy’s work, alongside a small group of researchers, placed this area in the spotlight.

Professor Murphy has since advised several Australian police agencies and provided briefings to the Queensland Police Service (QPS), with procedural justice now being embedded into Australian policies and strategies such as the Queensland Police Service Strategic Plan 2025-2029.

Beyond shaping policy, Professor Murphy’s research has had direct operational impact. Between 2016 and 2018, she co-led a Queensland Police Service (QPS) commissioned project alongside Griffith’s Professor Janet Ransley (retired) to develop and implement the Queensland Crime Harm Index. The research team used surveys to collect information on how community members (2,000) and police officers (1,800) perceive the social harms caused by various crimes. The resulting Queensland Crime Harm Index is an evidence-based tool that allows QPS to prioritise resource allocation to target offences and offenders that cause the most harm to society.

The Queensland Crime Harm Index has also informed sentencing policy. In 2024, Professor Murphy and Professor Ransley published an updated working paper on the Index on the request of the Queensland Sentencing Advisory Council. The Council drew on this research as part of their review into how sexual assault and rape offences are sentenced in Queensland, which resulted in them making 28 recommendations to the Queensland Attorney-General.

A new challenge for Professor Murphy is to drive change in corrections. In 2025, she commenced working with New South Wales Corrective Services to evaluate the importance of procedural justice in correctional facilities. Her work with Griffith’s Associate Professor Elise Sargeant established that when prison staff used procedural justice it enhanced feelings of safety and the well-being of prisoners in custody. That work is continuing, with a specific focus on understanding whether procedural justice can promote prisoners’ compliance in prisons and reduce recidivism rates beyond release from custody.

Conspiracy theories, extremism and terrorism - informing government and policing responses

Extending her work on procedural justice and how it applies to different contexts and contemporary issues, Professor Murphy has examined issues collectively affecting governments, police organisations and communities such as conspiracy theories, extremism, terrorism and social cohesion. Her research shows that unfair or heavy‑handed authority responses can damage trust and community cohesion.

In 2017, Professor Murphy worked with QPS to evaluate three police-led programs aimed at improving police-Muslim relations and reducing youth radicalisation. Findings from this project and her broader work on Muslims’ attitudes towards counterterrorism policing have been used by the Queensland Police Counter-Terrorism Unit to inform the development of police communication strategies and have been fed into the Queensland Government’s Social Cohesion Implementation Committee’s agenda.

During and after the COVID-19 pandemic, Professor Murphy’s research looked to address emerging threats to social cohesion and democratic legitimacy. Her work examined how heavy-handed or procedurally unjust responses by governments and police can contribute to conspiracy beliefs, public defiance of government disease prevention methods, political extremism, and anti‑social collective action. In 2020 she advised the Australian and New Zealand Policing Advisory Agency on fair policing during the pandemic and her related research outputs have been used to inform policy in South Korea, Austria, and Indonesia.

Her research on procedural justice and conspiracy driven extremism has led to several keynote invitations to speak at industry conferences or policy roundtables. In 2023 and 2024 she presented at the annual conferences of the International Leadership in Counter-Terrorism - Alumni Association (LinCT-AA). LinCT-AA is attended by directors of police and intelligence agencies from the Five Eyes intelligence sharing partners, with attendance being by invitation only. In 2023 she presented at a Ministerial Academic-Government Roundtable on Terrorism at the invitation of The Honourable Clare O’Neil MP, Parliament of Australia. Finally, she presented on her work to the Office of National Intelligence, Australian Government in 2025.

Professor Murphy’s ongoing research continues to address declining trust in authorities and the legitimacy of public institutions. Her work will continue to provide robust evidence and inform policy and operational outcomes related to policing and governance at a critical moment for public trust. By demonstrating that fairness and legitimacy are not abstract ideals but practical tools for effective governance, her research has delivered lasting benefits to public institutions and the communities they serve.