Pre-Arrest Perceptions of George Zimmerman’s Guilt in the Fatal Trayvon Martin Shooting: Examining Racial Differences in the Presumption of Guilt

Abstract

The racial gradient hypothesis of comparative conflict theory predicts Black people perceive the greatest social injustices, followed by Latinx and white people, respectively. This study used nationally representative data collected prior to George Zimmerman’s arrest to examine whether racial groups (Black, Latinx, white) differed in their perceptions that Zimmerman was guilty of a crime against Trayvon Martin. Logistic regression results revealed Black participants were 98% more likely than white participants to perceive Zimmerman as guilty. Latinx perceptions of Zimmerman’s guilt did not significantly differ from those of Black or white participants. Findings suggest some Latinx individuals may not fully appreciate how the same U.S. racial hierarchy that harms Latinx communities also works to produce anti-Black violence.

Understanding Black-White Differences in Support for the Racial Invariance Thesis: Lessons Learned From Philadelphia Area Residents

“…They justified this decision as wanting to retain as many participants’ responses as possible and found that the results they reported did not fundamentally differ from separate analyses where don’t know responses were omitted from the sample. Similarly, Cooper et al (2021) transformed a 5-point Likert scale measuring perceptions of whether George Zimmerman was guilty of a crime for fatally shooting Trayvon Martin into a dichotomous dependent variable. Participants’ responses of “unclear from available information” were grouped with not perceiving Zimmerman as guilty.…”

“…The significance of the variable nonurban also changes from p = .090 to p = .038. Given that deleting the 41 neutral responses would reduce the already relatively small sample size from 299 to 258—a shrinkage of 13.7%—the decision was made to include the neutral responses with disagreement toward the racial invariance thesis following the examples provided by prior public opinion research (Baumer et al, 2003; Cooper et al, 2021).…”

Black Women-Owned Businesses: High-Level Growth Disparity

“…The movement launched in 2013 after the murder of Trayvon Martin, an unarmed Black teenager racially profiled and killed at the hands of George Zimmerman (Black Lives Matter, 2023). Martin was walking home after having purchased candy from a store when confronted by Zimmerman because he was a Black kid wearing a hoodie (Cooper et al, 2023). The case received nationwide attention, and when Zimmerman was acquitted, Black communities across the nation were infuriated, protested for justice, and thus catapulted the Black Lives Movement into the spotlight.…”