Trayvon Martin Case Study

The Trayvon Martin case is a challenge to psychological Science. It is hard to say if implicit bias played a role on Trayvon Martin’s death. Geraldo Rivera who is the host of Fox news stated that Martin died because he had a sweatshirt hoodie on when he was shot. Rivera’s remarks started criticism for indicating that black individuals who wear hoodies are thugs, and that this is the reason why Zimmerman shot Trayvon Martin. Psychological studies have showed stereotyped cooperation’s connecting race to crime and dangerousness. Many psychological studies have found that in the minds of human beings, whether they approve the beliefs of racial biases is the relationship between race, crime, and dangerousness. When a person grows up in a culture that endorses stereotypes of race and ethnicity, these stereotypes can become difficult to change. Whether Martin’s clothes had any implicit meaning on George Zimmerman is not fully known. When he called the police before the shooting Zimmerman recognized Martin as black and a very suspicious individual who looks like he’s up to something. (Mays, Johnson, Coles, Gellene, & Cochran, 2013)
Trayvon Martin’s death shows patterns of violence towards persons and populations perpetuated in the context of racial, bias, hatred, …show more content…
He was out there to watch and do his job but instead he wanted to find an innocent person and go after him. He did to gain social power. His goal was to influence and control the behavior of Trayvon Martin. He was a watch captain and Trayvon Martin was just an innocent individual. He knew that he was a watch, so he went after Martin to feel better about himself and feel powerful. What George Zimmerman did is wrong, and I feel like him trying to gain power was an evil thing to do. In his head he probably knew that because he is a watch captain and that Trayvon Martin attacked him that he was going to get away with