Dr. Haezreena Begum Abdul Hamid is a Criminologist, Advocate & Solicitor of the High Court of Malaya, and Senior Lecturer at the Faculty of Law, Universiti Malaya. Called to the Malaysian Bar in 1997, she combines nearly three decades of legal practice with internationally recognised academic scholarship in law, criminology, and human rights. Her areas of expertise include human trafficking, transnational organised crime, terrorism and violent extremism, prisons and incarceration, criminal justice, gender, women's rights, victimisation, and socio-legal studies.

She has served as a Visiting Scholar at the School of Law, the University of Edinburgh, Scotland, and the University of Sydney, Australia. In recognition of her distinguished expertise in international criminal justice and human rights, Dr. Haezreena was appointed as an Expert to the International Criminal Court (ICC) in the fields of Counter-Terrorism and Human Trafficking and is included in the ICC's official List of Experts.

Dr. Haezreena has successfully led and contributed to numerous nationally and internationally funded research, law reform, and capacity-building initiatives. In 2022, she was awarded a grant by the United States Embassy in Kuala Lumpur to design and deliver capacity-building programmes for Malaysian law enforcement agencies and Protection Officers on combating human trafficking. She subsequently received funding from the European Union through ESIWA, in collaboration with the Royal Malaysia Police Counter-Terrorism Division (E8), to conduct empirical research involving returnees and former detainees from Syria and Afghanistan. More recently, she was awarded a research grant by the Institute of Strategic and International Studies (ISIS) Malaysia to develop an online indicator framework for identifying and detecting online extremism, contributing to Malaysia's efforts to prevent violent extremism in the digital space. She also received a research grant from the Legal Affairs Division (BHEUU), Prime Minister's Department, Malaysia, following her appointment as Head Researcher and Committee Member of the Criminal Law Reform Committee to review and reform Malaysia's principal criminal legislation, including the Penal Code, Criminal Procedure Code, and Evidence Act 1950. In recognition of her contribution to anti-trafficking policy and reform, she was formally acknowledged by the Minister of Home Affairs, Datuk Seri Saifuddin Nasution Ismail, for her role in supporting Malaysia's elevation to Tier 2 in the United States Trafficking in Persons (TIP) Report in 2024.

Her expertise in counter-terrorism has led to several landmark appointments. She was appointed by the Royal Malaysia Police to conduct comprehensive behavioural assessments and risk evaluations of two former Guantanamo Bay detainees associated with the 2002 Bali and 2003 Jakarta bombings. Following hundreds of hours of interviews and observation, she prepared detailed assessment reports and policy recommendations for the Royal Malaysia Police and the Ministry of Home Affairs. More recently, she has been appointed as an expert for individuals charged with terrorism and terrorism-related offences, including the high-profile GISBH case.

Dr. Haezreena's research is distinguished by its exceptional depth of fieldwork and empirical engagement. She has spent thousands of hours conducting interviews with 70 women prisoners across six Malaysian prisons, 75 survivors of human trafficking residing in government shelters, and 30 terrorism returnees and former detainees from Syria and Afghanistan who lived in conflict zones and were associated with terrorist organisations. These studies have generated one of Malaysia's most comprehensive qualitative datasets on imprisonment, victimisation, trafficking in persons, and violent extremism.

Her scholarship is informed by the works of Michel Foucault, Sandra Walklate, Nils Christie, and other leading criminological thinkers, adopting a socio-legal and post-colonial approach to understanding crime, punishment, victimisation, and social justice. Her work critically explores the relationship between law, power, structural inequality, and the fluid continuum between victimhood, offending, reintegration, and survival.

Her doctoral thesis, Sex Trafficking: Victimisation and Agency: The Experiences of Migrant Women in Malaysia, received international acclaim for its originality and significant contribution to trafficking scholarship. By foregrounding the voices and lived experiences of migrant women, her research has influenced victim-centred approaches to anti-trafficking law, policy, and practice.

Dr. Haezreena is the author of several influential books on human trafficking, terrorism, reintegration, and prisons. Her Playbook on Human Trafficking and Handbook on Human Trafficking are widely used by law enforcement agencies, Protection Officers, researchers, and non-governmental organisations both in Malaysia and internationally. Her recent book, Terrorism and Reintegration in Malaysia: A Legal-Criminological Approach (Palgrave Macmillan), has been internationally recognised as the first comprehensive work to examine terrorism and reintegration in Malaysia through an integrated legal and criminological perspective. Her forthcoming monograph, The Voices of Women in Prison: Navigating Victimisation, Poverty, and Punishment in Malaysia (Emerald Publishing), further advances scholarship on women, imprisonment, and punishment in the Global South.

Beyond her books, she has published extensively on human trafficking, terrorism and reintegration, prisons, structural harm, victim blaming, gendered pathways into crime, inequality, and social justice. Her scholarship has informed policy development, legislative reform, and professional practice, and is frequently cited by government agencies, international organisations, academics, and civil society organisations.

Her contributions to academia and public service have been recognised through numerous prestigious honours, including the Universiti Malaya Excellent Lecturer Award (2024), presented by His Royal Highness Sultan Nazrin Muizzuddin Shah of Perak, the Universiti Malaya Researcher's Award (2025), and the Faculty of Law Certificate of Excellence in 2023 and 2026.

Through the integration of rigorous scholarship, extensive empirical fieldwork, public policy engagement, and professional legal experience, Dr. Haezreena continues to make significant contributions to criminal justice reform, human rights, counter-terrorism, and anti-trafficking efforts at both the national and international levels.