Professor Murray Lee is a Professor of Criminology at the University of Sydney Law School, Faculty of Law. He earned a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Newcastle, a Bachelor of Arts with Honours, and a PhD from the University of Western Sydney. Throughout his career, he has held significant leadership roles, including Director of the Sydney Institute of Criminology from 2008 to 2012 and editor of the scholarly journal Current Issues in Criminal Justice. Lee currently serves as Chief Investigator on the Australian Research Council-funded project The Policing of Australian Popular Music. His teaching covers policing, crime theory, fear and risk of victimisation, punishment, and environmental criminology. He has conducted research in partnership with the City of Sydney on perceptions of crime and safety.

Lee's research specializations include representations of crime and affect, fear of crime, sexting and young people, policing and the media, the policing of music and musicians, crime prevention, confidence in criminal justice systems, and spatial determinants of crime. He is the author of Inventing Fear of Crime: Criminology and the Politics of Anxiety (2007), co-author of Policing and Media: Public Relations, Simulations and Communications (2013), and co-editor of Fear of Crime: Critical Voices in an Age of Anxiety (2009) and The Routledge International Handbook on Fear of Crime (2017). Key journal articles include 'When Law-And-Order Politics Fail: Media Fragmentation and Protective Factors That Limit the Politics of Fear' (2022, British Journal of Criminology, with C. Keel), 'Dr[illing] In The Name Of: the criminalisation of Sydney drill group ONEFOUR' (2022, Current Issues in Criminal Justice), 'Searching for Connection: Music of incarceration, prison soundscapes, and sonic agency' (2023, Criminological Encounters), 'Being held to account: Detainees’ perceptions of police body-worn cameras' (2019, Journal of Criminology, with M. Willis), and 'Policing the Pedal Rebels: A Case Study of Environmental Activism Under COVID-19' (2021, International Journal for Crime, Justice and Social Democracy). Lee received the Best Peer-Reviewed Publication Award from the American Society of Criminology Division of Critical Criminology and Social Justice. His work has contributed to understandings of mediatised crime, digital criminology, and cultural aspects of criminal justice.

Professional Email: murray.lee@sydney.edu.au