"but they’re probably not going to decide to murder the victim to minimize legal risk"

If someone "has sufficient social power" as you put it, to get away with such a crime, then why do you think they wouldn't be able to make a person "disappear"?

Say, we were talkingn about basically an organized crime figure who ended up running a corrupt state. If you were a victim, would you bet that nothing would happen to you if you made a criminal complaint, filed a lawsuit, or went to the media?

This scenario is not a "scary man who randomly breaks into your house" - that doesn't seem at all implicit in the parent comment.