Melanie Murchison, BA (Hons), MA, PhD

• SOC 2510 - Criminology 
• SOC 2610 - Sociology of Criminal Justice and Corrections 
• SOC 3740 - Selected Topics: Criminology and Popular Culture 

Melanie Janelle Murchison is an Instructor II in the Department of Sociology and Criminology at the University of Manitoba. She previously taught in the Department of Sociology and at the Centre for Law, Society and Justice at the University of Wisconsin - Madison from 2015 - 2021.

In 2016, Dr. Murchison held a British Academy Leverhulme Grant as a Co-Investigator with Dr. Alex Schwartz on Ethnic Voting Behaviour on the Constitutional Court in Bosnia-Herzegovina. From that grant, they published the article “Judicial Impartiality and Independence in Divided Societies: An Empirical Analysis of the Constitutional Court of Bosnia-Herzegovina” in Law and Society Review. 
 

• PhD (Law), Queen's University Belfast, 2016
• MA (Legal Studies), Carleton University, 2012
• BA (Honours) (Criminal Justice), University of Winnipeg, 2010

Research interests

• Criminology and socio-legal studies
• Gender-based violence
• Gender and crime
• Comparative criminology
• Legal pedagogy

Research summary

Dr. Murchison’s recent academic work has been with Dean Richard Jochelson (Law) and Assistant Professor David Ireland (Law) on best practices within legal pedagogy during the COVID-19 pandemic. Their article “Remote Learning in Law School During the Pandemic – a Canadian Survey” was published in the Canadian Journal of Comparative and Contemporary Law in late 2022. 

• Murchison, M. J., Jochelson, R., Ireland, D., et al. (2022). “Remote Learning in Law School During the Pandemic – a Canadian Survey” 8 Canadian Journal of Comparative and Constitutional Law
• Murchison, M. J. (2017). “Making Numbers Count: An Empirical Analysis of Judicial Activism” Manitoba Law Review
• Schwartz, A., Murchison, M. J. (2016) "Judicial Impartiality and Independence in Divided Societies: An Empirical Analysis of the Constitutional Court of Bosnia-Herzegovina". 50(4) Law & Society Review
• Jochelson, R., Murchison, M. J., Huang, D. (2016) "Empiricizing Exclusionary Remedies – a Cross Canada Study of Exclusion of Evidence under s.24(2) of the Charter, 5 Years after Grant". CLQ 63(1&2)
• Weinrath, M., Donatelli, G., and Murchison, M. J. (2016) “Mentorship: A Missing Piece to Manage Juvenile Intensive Supervision Programs and Youth Gangs?” 58(2) Canadian Journal of Criminology and Criminal Justice
• Jochelson, R., and Murchison, M. J. (2016) “Measuring Activism and Restraint or How to Conflate Doctrine with Activism: A Response to Professor Riddell’s Small-Scale Judicial Output Study” 58(1) Canadian Journal of Criminology and Criminal Justice
• Jochelson, R., Murchison, M.J. (2015) “An Empirical Comparison of the Exclusion of Evidence Pre/Post 9/11: A Model of Judicial Discourse” 57(1) Canadian Journal of Criminology and Criminal Justice
• Jochelson, R., Weinrath, M., & Murchison, M. J. (2012). “Searching and Seizing After 9/11: Developing and Applying Empirical Methodology to Measure Judicial Output in the Supreme Court's Section 8 Jurisprudence”. Dalhousie LJ, 35, 179-215.
• Weinrath, M., Murchison, M., Markesteyn, T. (2012) “Measuring Success of Corrections Programs: The Evaluation of the Minobimasdiziwin Prison Gang Intervention Program” in R. Jochelson & K. Gorkoff (eds.) (2012) Thinking about Justice Winnipeg: Fernwood Publishing