Most squatted property in the time I was doing it, was owned by large organisations and left empty for a mixture of reasons, despite the severe housing shortage. Nobody I knew was looking to dispossess individual home owners, absentee or not. We broke into housing owned by corporates which was unavailable for ordinary use, had been cut off from power, we got power reconnected and we lived there briefly, until the law courts evicted us. Some friends uplifted their squat into social housing inside the system. Other people did it as a political act, There have been long standing socialised squats in Amsterdam, in Copenhagen. And yes, drug dealing and prostitution is a problem in illegal housing. Also in legal housing.
But I can't pretend there aren't issues in squatting.
It is surprising sometimes (at least to some people) how quickly "taking the law into your own hands" can become a crime. The whole "stand your ground" thing is really complex because "I acted in self defence" can very quickly turn out to have gone to another place.