Dealing with stuff

Why do people think they can handle stuff on their own when it's obvious they can't? Why do they feel the need to try and deal with it when it would be best to get the police involved? Why do they not want help from people that know what to do, and instead think they have the solution?

How to you show them that they really don't need to do what they're planning?

Ok, so, I can't really go into details, but I have some friends that really need to stop trying to handle a problem that is bigger than they are. One other guy and myself have seen how big this has gotten. He's gotten Res. Living involved, who has in turn contacted UPD. I've talked to my professor, a former attorney. She talked to a couple other profs and they too recommended going to UPD. The problem is, there are several other people involved that UPD doesn't know about. So I'm trying to decide if I need to contact them and tell them, or have the people contact them.

That's really vague, but until the situation is resolved, I'm not putting it out there on the Internet. Good grief, I'm not that stupid!