My personal policy is to trust everyone I meet until I'm given a reason otherwise. Same for respect. I'm also a firm believer that people can and often do change for the better.

On the other hand, I have a concealed weapons license for my pistol, and made sure my wife has the same, I lock the doors on my apartment and my car, and I take measures to prevent loss of walet and cellphone when in public crowds.

There's a tremendous trend right now (and for about the last 50 years) towards not believing in consequences. Why that's come about is a big subject and way beyond the scope of a post in this forum. The end result is that there are a lot of people who are firmly convinced that any harm they do to others isn't "a big deal".

In Friday, Heinlein noted that one of the first signs of decay of a civilization is loss of respect and manners. Based on a lot of study of history, I have to agree with that conclusion.