Alluded to is not the same as defined. "I'd just get to know him, and then I'd be able to TELL!" is silly.
And really!?!?!?! Any violent crime victim has made a mistake? Guy gets mugged, must've made a mistake. Woman gets raped, must have made a mistake. Etc. Wow...
I'm also saying that the solutions that you propose very likely wouldn't have prevented this. If you think hanging out and chatting with a guy and/or his family for a few hours will inevitably lead to their revealing the unvarnished truth about their most embarrassing incidents you're delusional.
"Well, he has been drinking too much since he got back from Iraq. He got a DUI and he's got a bad temper when he's drunk." Oh hey look, exactly what virtually every single person with ptsd issues is like, and how their family would describe it to a famous stranger offering to help. Would that have given you foresight to be able to know he'd rob you?
I go to public ranges, so in a very real sense every time I shoot I'm "at the range with people I know nothing about." I wouldn't take anyone I knew to be a drug addict, or an unreformed violent criminal but then I wouldn't knowingly do anything with those sort of folks. I've met people at ranges before where all I knew about them was that they had a rifle I wanted to buy.
Bad things happen. We can't always prevent them, and saying "Anything something bad happens it must be because the victim screwed up" is, again, just... wow.
To number one, I'd say one should at least know someone well enough to know if they've made violent threats against their family that resulted in a police encounter...
Which you'd find out how again?
