I think people are focusing on the outcome rather than the crime. It's irrelevant whether they were successful, it goes into criminality when a criminal act is

I think people are focusing on the outcome rather than the crime. It's irrelevant whether they were successful, it goes into criminality when a criminal act is actually acted upon, not whether it was successful. It's not illegal to sell hammers, but when you pull out that hammer to hit someone over the head with it, it becomes a crime. Whether or not you actually connected with that other party's head doesn't make the attempt any less criminal.