According to one Sicilian contractor, mafia intervention can be avoided. He himself had coordinated "lines," ostensibly without being a mafioso. By yielding too readily to the mafia, he claimed, one loses the respect which may otherwise be sufficient to control collusion: "A lot of entrepreneurs end up in the arms of the mafia simply because they believe it is inevitable" (I-3).

XREF: Connects to broader literature on how cognitive expectations of inevitability drive compliance with extortion and corruption, not just in Sicily.

Diego Gambetta, The Sicilian Mafia The Busi…, loc. 574