I need to farm rep and besides crimes attacks are the only way to go. However I keep attacking ppl who are too weak or too strong. It seems that lvling up and focusing on battle stats have killed my rep gains immensely. I am not sure how to find viable targets anymore unless I risk dying to a high stat guy who I don't know had high stats. I am not sure if I am doing this searching wrong but this seems to be a big issue after the lvl 1 players nerf. I think ppl who actually invest in stats should not see them as a crutch for rep gains. (Do remember this is from my pov not others so if I am wrong do tell me) So my question is just how to find appropriate stat targets to fight.

search button is best bet, you might have to take some risk to begin with to find out who you can beat and who is worth risking the loss to, depending on your fair fight calculator/

When you attack someone there will be a fair fight calculator. This is a direct relation between your and his/her battlestats. If I find someone that has a x1 modifier for me, that's a good target and gives you the most rep.

A tip I got from a friend who also plays this game is to also look at rep and not level. Someone with 50k rep will have higher stats than someone with 2.5k rep. 

It's a bit of trial & error, but if you find a target with 0.8-0.9 ffm, it's an easy win.