Dr Rachel McPherson
- Senior Lecturer (School of Law)
telephone:
0141 330 1777
email:
Rachel.Mcpherson@glasgow.ac.uk
Room 316, Stair Building, University of Glasgow
Biography
Rachel’s expertise lies in Criminal Law and Evidence and Family Law. She is particularly interested in legal responses to domestic abuse and intimate partner homicide.
Her research employs socio-legal methodologies.
She has worked across a range of socio-legal research projects including those funded by the Scottish Courts and Tribunal Service, Economic and Social Research Council, Scottish Government, and Scottish Institute for Policing Research.
Rachel is also the deputy chief adviser of studies.
Research interests
- Access to justice
- Criminal law
- Criminal justice
- Family law
- Intimate partner homicide
- Law of evidence
- Legal responses to domestic abuse
- Sentencing
- Socio-legal research methodologies
Grants
- UKRI (2022) Understanding Domestic Homicide in Scotland: Exploring Patterns, Promoting Safeguarding
- British Academy (2022) Hidden Voices: how women convicted of killing their intimate partners experience the Scottish criminal justice system
- Scottish Courts and Tribunal Service (2021) Sentencing in cases involving domestic abuse
- Royal Society of Edinburgh (2021) Understanding and translating cases in which women kill following domestic abuse
- Scottish Courts and Tribunal Service (2020) Sentencing in cases involving rape in Scotland and other jurisdictions
- Scottish Courts and Tribunal Service (2020) Sentencing in cases involving sexual assault in Scotland and other jurisdictions
- Carnegie Trust (2020) Scottish homicides: bridging the gap between the empirical and theoretical
- Scottish Courts and Tribunal Service (2019) Analysis of Judicial Consultations on Sentencing
- Scottish Courts and Tribunal Service (2019) Sentencing Discount, tendered in association with University of Strathclyde
- Scottish Courts and Tribunal Service (2019) Public Perceptions of Sentencing Survey, tendered in association with Ipsos MORI
- Scottish Courts and Tribunal Service (2019) Public Perceptions of Sentencing in the Scottish Courts, tendered in associated with ScotCen
- Scottish Sentencing Council (2018) Death by Driving Literature Review, tendered in association with University of Strathclyde
- Scottish Government (2017) Independent Review of Hate Crime Legislation
- Glasgow City Council (2017) Hate Crime Service Provision
Supervision
Rachel is interested in supervising students with an interest in any aspect of criminal law and criminal justice; the law of evidence and family law.
Current supervision:
- Marsh, Clare The introduction a specific defence in the context of the law of homicide where an accused has been a victim of domestic abuse, and how this defence should operate.
- Burgess, Nicholas
Tracking the synergy between criminal law theory and UK drug laws from the 19th to the 21st centuries - McManus, Daniel
Developing Alternatives to Prosecutions in Scotland
Teaching
- Criminal Law and Evidence
- Family Law
- Legal Responses to Domestic Abuse and Honour Abuse
- Women, Law & Society
Additional information
Affiliations
Gender-Based Violence Research Forum
Scottish Centre for Crime and Justice Research
Law Reform and Public Policy Research Group
Socio-Legal Research Group
Blog Posts
Intimate Partner Violence and the Order for Lifelong Restriction: An Exploratory Study
Sentencing Domestic Abuse in Scotland
What do we know about sentencing sexual offences in Scotland?
