Well.. things are slightly different here. Due to the fact that the society is what it is ( and some of the old rules still apply), the attackers are usually not people who can be recognized by the victim… and the reason is pretty simple.. You do not want to be the one who pissed off an Albanian family by attacking or raping their sister/wife/cousin. ( which is why the amount of rapes by the Serbian forces during the war was such a shock) If anyone is crazy enough to do that, they know that retaliation will be coming. even if it is not immediate- there is an endless number of cases when people avenged something that happened a decade or two before…

and, even if a person ends up in jail- it is no guarantee — people have been known to serve their sentences and then end up killed by a family member of their victim the day they went out of prison…

As for the knife… It is pretty much illegal to carry it around here too — but the cops have a tendency to ignore weapons carried for self-defense by women. And I believe that the Black Belt element is the same everywhere… I remember when I got mine, there was sort of a pledge not to use what I know besides in self defense- or face legal consequences

As for suing…. it depends, who, what how…… IF you catch a thief stealing in your house and kick the living hell out of him.. you are risking 3 to 6 months ( I know- insane) … But, there is a very, very small chance that a law-suit can come out of a situation like this… IF for no other reason, then because an attacker will have to make his identity known- which will then be picked up by the family members of the victim…. Besides, I do not know of any local that will willingly admit he got his ass kicked by a woman…

Although you are right about avoidance… It is the best strategy- but, just like anything else, it is not always feasible… And there is always a chance you will run into a random idiot …