The Fear Of 13, By Nick Yarris

At the age of twenty, most are still learning to grow up and figure their lives out. But what they don’t expect, is to spend the next twenty- one years of their life on death row. Unfortunately, this was the reality for Nick Yarris. Based on his novel, “The Fear of 13”, is a documentary which tells the chilling story of Yarris’s life and the mistreatment he faced against the Pennsylvania Prison (2015). Yarris spent two decades on death row, on the charges of the abduction, rape and murder of Linda Mae Craig, a woman he had never met (The Fear of 13 2015). This documentary shows how the labelling theory and low self-control theory can perpetuate deviant behaviour. And Nick Yarris’s story is the reality that continues to haunt the American justice system.
One night, an officer found him sleeping in the car and arrested him after a misunderstanding, this arrest would change his life
In fact, in regards to the labelling theory, Yarris’s arrest when he was twenty was based on the bias labelling of the officer (Tatham 2018). This negative label put on Yarris caused him to lose half his life on death row (The Fear of 13 2015). However, by the definition of low self-control theory, it was Yarris’s low self-control and lack of concern for the future which led him to commit grand theft auto (Tatham 2018). When Yarris was a young boy, he had been raped by a stranger in the woods and under the shook of the incident lied to his parents about the bruises (The Fear of 13 2015). This would help understand the childhood experiences which shaped the lack of concern he shared for any consequences in the long term (Tatham 2018). The horrific experience in his early life set Nick Yarris up to neglect long-term repercussions, and use amphetamines as a source of pleasure, thus explaining his low self-control. (Tatham