Contrary to widespread belief, the refusal to buy protection is not met with outright violence. Building contractors interviewed in Palermo all assert that mafiosi do not kill recalcitrant customers; at worst they harass them, causing damage to property and so on. The entrepreneurs who are murdered are those who have breached an agreement or become informers (I-1, I-3, I-4).

QUESTION: If refusal doesn't trigger killing, what actually motivates the violence? This complicates the common picture of organized crime enforcement.

Diego Gambetta, The Sicilian Mafia The Busi…, loc. 142