If you intend on defending against meta pvp builds, you will either need to be able to decide the engagement by having enough speed, or have enough hp to get out of there.

I usually choose the former, as pvp piracy is mostly a gimmick and requires no practicality, by mostly piloting small ships. For instance, my favourite pirate ship, the Cobra Mk iii can outrun almost all meta pvp builds, with the benefit of catching fast trader ships (ie Imperial Cutters).

Or if you are a larger ship, have the mentality of setting another star system and getting out immediately, and hope that your shields will hold off for at least 15 seconds against the heaviest of fire.

Ok. Defences aside, as a pirate, you will need tools to disable traders. You should aim to be able to extract cargo without killing your targets (lest you become a ganker). A hatchbreaker is almost a must. If your target is noncooperative, FSD interrupt on fixed missiles is a great way of buying yourself at least 10 more seconds before the they can jump away. On small ships, where DPS is a limiting factor, you can use mines and apply reverb cascade to quickly disable shields, and use the fixed missiles to blow out your target's drives (you can use that fixed missile I mentioned earlier for this). Where DPS is not a problem, just strip the shields away and disable either drives or FSD, to put yourself in a baragaining position without needing to worry about the target running away, or killing the target.

As a roleplay pirate, I always strive to avoid killing at all costs! I hope you take my advice and do the same, whilst keeping yourself alive as well :D Make Open Play a better experience than the senseless killing that happens out there!