Tyler Joseph King

PhD Candidate
CG 260
t.king@mail.utoronto.ca

Fields of Study

  • Criminal Justice
  • Law and Legal Processes

Areas of Interest

  • Neurolaw
  • Criminal Theory
  • Artificial Intelligence
  • Wrongful Convictions

Working Dissertation

Supervisors

Catherine Evans

Biography

Tyler is a PhD candidate at the University of Toronto’s Centre for Criminology and Sociolegal Studies. He is interested in theories of responsibility, guilt and remorse, particularly in relation to how these concepts are being influenced and shifted by modern “truth-seeking” technologies (such as fMRI scans). Prior to completing his undergraduate degree in Criminal Justice at Ryerson University, Tyler was an infantry reservist with the Canadian Armed Forces. He also has experience in private intelligence/investigations, and remains a licensed private investigator in the province of Ontario.

In a commitment to public criminology and outreach, Tyler has been a member of the Criminological Highlights Editorial Board since 2019. Highlights is a free subscription journal that summarizes topical and methodologically-sound research articles for a wide audience: www.crimhighlights.ca.

In 2024, Tyler designed and taught his own course at the University of Toronto on Critical Approaches to Forensic Evidence (CRI493). The course examines forensic evidence as it travels, spatially and temporally, throughout the entire criminal justice lifecycle — from crime scene to courtroom to forensic hospital/prison. It is a sociolegal exploration into the different forms (even a single piece of) forensic evidence takes, as well as how different actors use and deploy this evidence in various contexts, and with what effects. From DNA to brain scans, it discusses and problematizes some of the common tropes surrounding techno-scientific evidence, including its objectivity, relevance, and necessity in/to legal decision making and knowledge production.

Selected Publications

Peer Reviewed Publications
  • King, T. J., and Mariana Valverde. (Forthcoming). "The Multiple Realities of Legal Objects: Accounting for 'Ontological Discretion' in Criminal Courts." Law and Social Inquiry (Accepted April 2025).
  • King, T. J., Shaw J. M., and Liam Kennedy. (2024). “Documenting the Document: The Forensic Hospital Report and its Knowledge Moves.” Social and Legal Studies, 33(3): 309-327. DOI: 10.1177/09646639231187093. Winner of the Social and Legal Studies 2024 Editor's Choice Award.  
  • Shaw, J. M., King, T. J., and Liam Kennedy. (2023). “Constructing Risk Through Jurisdictional Talk: The Ontario Review Board Process Under Part XX.1 of the Criminal Code.” Canadian Journal of Law and Society, 38(2): 180-200. DOI: 10.1017/cls.2023.17.
  • Kennedy, L., Shaw, J. M., and King, T.J. (2023). “Disciplinary Paternalism and Resistance in Ontario’s Forensic Mental Health System.” Critical Criminology, 31: 843-858. DOI: 10.1007/s10612-023-09714-8.
Media/Non-Peer Reviewed Publications

Education

BA (Criminal Justice), Ryerson University
MA (Criminology and Sociolegal Studies), University of Toronto

Presentations

(2024). The Multiple Realities of Common-Law Courts: Epilepsy, the Electroencephalogram, and Criminal Responsibility. The Association for the Study of Law, Culture, and the Humanities Annual Meeting.
(2023). EEG Brain Scans and the Ontologies of Responsibility. The Association for the Study of Law, Culture, and the Humanities Annual Meeting. (Also accepted as part of the conference’s early-career workshop).
(2023). From ‘Abnormal Frequency Bands’ to ‘Epilepsy’ to ‘Not Criminally Responsible’: Tracing the Use of Brain Scan Technologies in Criminal Proceedings. Law and Society Association Annual Meeting.
(2023). Panel on Bail Reform – Bill C-48: Does it Go Too Far or Not Far Enough? Ontario Justice Education Network Summer Law Institute.
(2022). From ‘Abnormal Frequency Bands’ to ‘Epilepsy’ to ‘Not Criminally Responsible’: Tracing the Use of Brain Scan Technologies in Criminal Proceedings. Law and Society Association Annual Meeting. (Declined due to COVID-19).
(2020). Contact Sports to Contact with the Law: The History of CTE and the Emergence of a Legal Defence. Society for the History of Technology Annual Meeting.
(2018). Life after wrongful conviction: Exploring the potential aggravating and mitigating factors related to exoneree reintegration. University of Toronto Criminology and Sociolegal Studies Graduate Conference,

Cohort

  • 2018