David and Goliath: Underdogs, Misfits, and the Art of Battling Giants

because such thoughts generated an
uncomfortably high level of mental
anguish. They believed that the best
way to prevent this from happening
was to forget about the risk and leave
matters to fate. One of them put it this
way. “I don’t really trip off getting
caught, man, ’cause you’ll just worry
yourself like that.” Given that almost
all of these offenders perceived
themselves not only as being under
pressure to obtain money quickly but
also as having no lawful means of
doing so, this makes sense. Where no
viable alternative to crime exists,
there clearly is little point in
dwelling on the potentially negative
consequences of offending. It should