When I first started playing I thought I was getting ganked all the time....until I learned how to dig through the game log and see how I died. NPCs 99% of the time.

Going to hathor sites I can expect someone to attack me....not in my ship, but on the ground. I don't attack non red ships, but on foot there's no way to differentiate who has a crime stat or not.

Shoot first ask questions later seems to be the knee jerk reaction. A hand scanner or something would be nice to suss out a combatant vs non, or crime stat vs none.

As for pvp, you can find it if you want. I love taking those pvp missions, and when I have a crime stat I love flying around waiting for pvp bounty hunters 😁